Beach Road, Melbourne

Beach Road is a coastal suburban road in Melbourne, Australia that runs along the northeastern shore of Port Phillip Bay, from Bay Street in Port Melbourne to its southern point in Mordialloc. This name covers many consecutive streets and is not widely known to most drivers except for the southernmost section, as the entire allocation is still best known as by the names of its constituent parts: Beach Street, Beaconsfield Parade, Jacka Boulevard, Marine Parade, Ormond Esplanade, St Kilda Street, Esplanade and Beach Road proper. This article will deal with the entire length of the corridor for sake of completion.

Beach Road is extremely popular with cyclists. While the Bayside Trail follows the road closely, cyclists with racing bicycles usually use the road itself. According to Bicycle Victoria, over 7,000 riders were recorded using the road on one Saturday in September 2008. Numerous cycling clubs and less formal groups use the road for training sessions for road racing and triathlon. Cycling advocacy groups are presently campaigning for the removal of on-street parking on weekend mornings. Beach Road has also been the subject of a local council and community campaign to limit truck traffic.

Route
Beach Road starts as Beach Street at the intersection with Bay Street in Port Melbourne (just east of Princes Pier) and heads southeast as a dual carriageway road, changing name to Beaconsfield Parade shortly after (near the Port Melbourne Life Saving Club) and running along the foreshore of the beach along Port Phillip Bay for the next 4 km. At the intersection with Fitzroy Street at St Kilda, it changes name to Jacka Boulevard and runs past the St Kilda Sea Baths and southern edge of Luna Park, where it changes name again to Marine Parade, still following the coast. It intersects with Barkly Street and Glen Huntly Road just east of Point Ormond, changing name again to Ormond Esplanade, and narrowing to a four-lane single carriageway. At the northern edge of Brighton it intersects with and changes name to St. Kilda Street, running south through the suburbs of western Brighton, rejoining the coast outside Royal Brighton Yacht Club and changing name again to Esplanade. It continues further south along the coast until the intersection with South Road just outside Brighton Beach railway station, where it changes name for the final time as Beach Road, running along the beaches through Sandringham, Black Rock and Mentone before eventually terminating at Nepean Highway at Mordialloc.

History
The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924 through the Parliament of Victoria provided for the declaration of State Highways and Main Roads, roads partially financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads). Beach Road was declared a Main Road in May 1935, from South Road in Brighton to Nepean Highway in Mordialloc. After the passing of the Country Roads Act of 1958 (itself an evolution from the original Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924), the declaration was extended north on 7 September 1960, from Bay Street in Port Melbourne, along Beach Street, Beaconsfield Parade, Lower Esplande (later renamed to Jacka Boulevard), Marine Parade, Ormond Esplanade, St Kilda Street and Esplanade to join with Beach Road proper,  but roads within this northern extension were still sign-posted as its constituent parts.

Beach Road (including all its constituent roads) was signed as Metropolitan Route 33 between Port Melbourne and Mordialloc in 1965. Metropolitan Route 26 previously ran concurrent along Beaconsfield Parade and Beach Street from Kerferd Road at Albert Park, past Bay Street at Port Melbourne eventually along Howe Parade to Williamstown Road; Metropolitan Route 26 was later truncated to terminate at Kerferd Road and Beaconsfield Parade in 1989.

The passing of the Road Management Act 2004 granted the responsibility of overall management and development of Victoria's major arterial roads to VicRoads: in 2004, VicRoads re-declared the road as Beach Road (Arterial #5840), from Bay Street in Port Melbourne to Nepean Highway in Mordialloc, however the road is still presently known (and signposted) as its constituent parts.