Length:

498 km

Termini:

Northern: Narellan Rd (Metroad 9 and SR69), Campbelltown

Southern: NSW-VIC Border, Albury

Miscellaneous:

Continued as M31 in Victoria

Suburbs, Towns & Localities Along Route:

Campbelltown, Mount Annan, Menangle Park, Menangle, Douglas Park, Wilton, Pheasants Nest, Bargo, Yanderra, Yerrinbool, Alpine, Colo Vale, Aylmerton, Braemar, Willow Vale, Mittagong, Welby, Woodlands, Berrima, Sutton Forest, Penrose, Paddys River, Wingello, Marulan, Boxers Creek, Goulburn, Yarra, Wollogorang, Parkesbourne, Breadalbane, Cullerin, Gunning, Oolong, Lade Vale, Jerrawa, Manton, Yass, Bowning, Bookham, Berremangra, Jugiong, Coolac, Gundagai, South Gundagai, Tumblong, Mundarlo, Mount Adrah, Tarcutta, Kyeamba, Little Billabong, Holbrook, Woomargama, Mullengandra, Table Top, Thurgoona, Lavington, North Albury and East Albury

Current: M31

Former: 31 31

Road Authority Internal Classification: ¹

HW2

General Information:

The Hume Highway is one of Australia's most vital highway links. Providing access between Sydney and Melbourne, Australia's 2 largest cities. The route consisted of 100% dual carriageway road, either rural expressway or motorway standard.

In NSW, the highway in one form or another started life as the Great South Road, linking Sydney with the southern highlands and eventually beyond. The highway was named in 1928 after Hamilton Hume (1797-1873), a famous explorer in the early 19th century who, in 1824, in conjunction with William Hovell first found an overland route between Sydney and the infant colonial outpost of Port Phillip, the original name of Melbourne.

National Highway 31 was the main freight and commuter route between Sydney and Melbourne and has gone through a massive amount of transformation over the past 30 or so years, with many towns being bypassed along its route as well and gradual upgrades to motorway standards. Since the 1960s, the road has either been duplicated, where alignments allow for it, and also large deviations have also been part of the upgrade process.

The route around the Mittagong area averages around 16 000 vehicles every day, in other sections the number drops off a little or closer to Sydney increases. ²

The route forms the Remembrance Driveway which honours war veterans.

The Mittagong Bypass is 15 km long.

The Goulburn Bypass is 13 km of concrete dual carriageway.

The Cullerin Range Deviation consists of 34 km of dual carriageway.

17 km of dual carriageways between the Cullerin Range Deviation and the Yass Bypass.

The Yass Bypass, has 15 bridges and 18 km of dual carriageways.

The Jugiong Bypass, features 13 km of dual carriageways.

1914: Sydney-Melbourne road (Great South Road) is declared a main road.

1920: Cullerin Range route built on abandoned sections of the old Main Southern Railway.

1928: Razorback Range deviation construction. ⁴ Sections of Great South Road renamed to Hume Highway.

1930s: Raising of the wall of the Hume Dam on the Murray River forced the highway to be realigned north of Albury. Also during the 1930s the Marulan section of Hume Hwy was concreted from Mt. Otway to Marulan South.

1931: Lorry checking station built at Marulan. ³

December 1938: Tumbalong-Tarcutta deviation construction, a major roadworks project which was partly funded under the significant Unemployment Relief Works Program. ³

1939: 95% (557 km) of the Hume Highway paved with a bituminous surface. ⁴

1942: Construction of Ten Mile Creek Bridge at Holbrook. ³

1950s: In 1952, a group of citizens met and formed a committee under Lt-General Sir Frank Berryman to create a national memorial to servicemen by using trees and shrubs as living memorials. The NSW Premier, J J Cahill, officially launched the scheme on 9 December 1953. The Remembrance Driveway project as it was called started on 5 February 1954, when trees were planted at either end of the Driveway at the War Memorial, Canberra, and in Macquarie Place, Sydney, by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. By June 1959, 10 000 trees had been planted. Since then, planting of trees in avenues or groves has continued. When the M5 Motorway replaced the Hume Highway (and also Camden Valley Way) south of Liverpool, it became the focus for planting trees and shrubs in remembrance. ³

1951: Upgrade of old timber Cabramatta Creek Bridge, also known as Ireland's Bridge, at Cabramatta, to then modern standards. Also planning for the F5 Freeway (South Western Fwy) commenced. ²

1956: Duplication of the Landsdowne Bridge at Carramar to carry southbound traffic. ⁴

1957: An additional carriageway for the highway was completed at Lansvale. ³

1958 Truck weigh station built further out of Marulan along the highway, replacing the one built in 1931. ²

1959: an experiment using advisory speed signs on curves on the Hume Highway between Camden and Berrima was successful and was extended to other roads. ³

1960s: The route over the Mundoonen Range rebuilt in the 1960s - it was designed to be duplicated.

December 1962: A major project on traffic management was the completion of a set of overhead traffic signs and signals at Villawood where Woodville Road, Henry Lawson Drive and the Hume Highway met. Due to large traffic volumes at this intersection, it was selected as a suitable location to install the system. The site has become known over the years, as the "Meccano set". ³

17 March 1967: The last single-laned bridge on the Hume Hwy was eliminated when the bridge over the Bargo River and Main Southern Railway Line at Tahmoor opened. The bridge length is 191 metres. ⁴

1970s: Construction of high standard 4 lane freeway between Campbelltown and Prestons.

1970: Dual carriageway and new bridges built, bypassing the old bridge from 1930s at Boxers Creek, north of Goulburn ³

1972: Completion of the grade separated interchange between Hume Hwy and Federal Hwy at Wollogorang, south of Goulburn. Also computer based roadsign design trialled for the first time. The first signs designed using the system were for installation on the Hume Hwy at Yass. ⁴

26 March 1973: Governor of NSW, Sir Roden Cutler opened the Macarthur Bridge and Hume Highway deviation (now Camden Bypass) to traffic, covering 8 km, it acted as a bypass of Narellan and Camden town centres. ⁴

26 October 1973: A six mile (9.7 km) section of the South Western Freeway (formerly F5, now Hume Hwy (M5)) from Cross Roads to Raby Road opened. ³

1974: South Western Freeway extended to Narellan Road near Campbelltown.

1976: Completion of the 8 km Gundagai deviation and bridge over the Murrumbidgee River. ⁴

March 1977: The 1.1 kilometre Sheahan Bridge over the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai opened to traffic. ⁵

May 1977: South Western Freeway between Yanderra and Alpine opens to traffic.

1979: The area south of Connors Creek near Bookham was rebuilt with the earthworks being done for a second carriageway, which was built in 1994.

December 1980: Opening of freeway between Campbelltown and Yanderra north of Mittagong. This section of the Hume Hwy features the highest bridge ever built in NSW, which was the Pheasants Nest Bridge across the Nepean River, which is 76 metres above water level. ² When this section was built, it formed part of the longest freeway in Australia at the time and won the DMR world wide design and engineering awards.

1983: The highway between Conroys Gap and Coolac, had most of the earlier alignment replaced, also a new Tarcutta deviation completed - 11.5 kilometres in length. This bypassed the bowstring arch across Hillas Creek from the 1930s. The new section of road featured a dual carriageway.³

1986: Marulan Bypass opens, with new truck weigh stations (those were built in 1985). ⁶

March 1989: Berrima was bypassed by the South Western Freeway. ⁷

1992: Mittagong and Goulburn Bypasses open.

1994: Most of the highway route between Breadalbane, west of Goulburn, and Derringullen Creek, west of Yass, was deviated. This included a bypassing of the Cullerin Range.

2002: Replacement of bridges over Nattai River and Gibbergunyah Creek near Mittagong. ²

March 2007: Albury Bypass opens. The freeway was officially opened by Prime Minister John Howard at a community event on 4 March 2007. The freeway opened to traffic on 6 March 2007. ³ Work included creation of full diamond interchanges at Thurgoona Drive, Borella Road, Bridge Street and High Street (allowing entry exit from both directions), half diamond interchanges at Billy Hughes Bridge, Corrys Hill and Bandiana Link (allowing exit and from only one direction), bridges at both Fallon and North Streets over Sydney-Melbourne Railway line and the freeway, bridges over the Murray River, Flanagans Creek, Wodonga Creek, Oddies Creek and the railway line, pedestrian bridges at Dean Street, Albury Railway Station and Amatex Street and shared pedestrian/cycle paths along much of the route and extensive urban design features and landscaping along the freeway, including new parks in East Albury and South Albury.

2009: Hume Highway Duplication, Sturt Highway to Table Top completed. ⁵

February 2009: Widening of Hume Highway between Brooks Road and St Andrews Road commenced. ⁸

May 2009: The duplicated Sheahan Bridge at Gundagai was officially opened by the Federal Minister for Transport. ⁵

June 2009: Works begin on widening Hume Hwy to four lanes in each direction between St Andrews Road and Raby Road. ⁸

February 2010: Work starts on the Woomargama Bypass. ⁹

September 2010: Widening to three lanes in each direction between Raby Road and Narellan Road on Hume Highway began. ⁸

April 2011: Work commenced on Holbrook Bypass. ⁹

June 2011: Widening to 4 lanes each way of Hume Highway between Brooks Road and St Andrews Road completed. Also a new single lane northbound on-ramp to the freeway from Raby Road was opened to traffic. ⁸

December 2011: Widening works between St Andrews Rd and Raby Rd on Hume Hwy completed. ⁸

January 2012: Completion of the upgrade of the single lane southbound exit ramp to Campbelltown Road to two lanes. ⁸

March 2012: Widening of Hume Hwy between Raby Rd and Narellan Rd completed. ⁸

7 August 2013: The $247 million Holbrook bypass opened to traffic. ¹⁰

2013: National Highway 31 decommissioned.