in early 1997. The improved road dramatically improved the rate of outbound traffic, however the bottleneck at the Swan Street Bridge still remained and the queues only got longer. The previous Freeway Route designations (Freeway Route 80 along the South Eastern Freeway, and Freeway Route 81 along the Mulgrave Freeway) were removed in 1988 with the opening of the South Eastern Arterial, and replaced by National Route 1. South Eastern Arterial timeline of construction 1988: South Eastern Arterial, from Toorak Road to Warrigal Road, opened 21 December 1988, at a cost of $152 million 1993: Police Road ramps, opened June 1993, at a cost of $2.2 million 1994: Warrigal Road overpass, opened June 1994, at a cost of $15 million 1996: Tooronga Road overpass, opened January 1996 1997: Conversion to freeway completed, and renamed South Eastern Freeway, official "opening" on 20 March 1997, at a total cost of $112m Monash Freeway The name changed yet again two years later to the current Monash Freeway in 1999, so named by Premier Jeff Kennett after General Sir John Monash, a renowned Australian soldier, engineer, scholar and nation builder. In the late 1990s, construction of CityLink's Southern Link project began, with the aim of linking the north-western end of the freeway (then terminating at Batman Avenue) to the eastern-end of the West Gate Freeway by way of tunnels underneath the city, allowing for an uninterrupted voyage past the CBD. A portion of the existing Monash Freeway at the city end (from Toorak to Punt Roads) was subsumed into the Southern Link, and while this portion was widened and upgraded, as part of the CityLink project it was also tolled, attracting criticism from road users. The Southern Link fully opened and tolling commenced on 28 December 2000. With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, the freeway's former National Route 1 designation began conversion to the M1 in late 1996, and was completed in 1997. Hallam Bypass Before this bypass was constructed, the sweeping curve of the freeway at the Hallam end that became the South Gippsland Freeway had its capacity reduced from three lanes to two, resulting in a notorious bottle-neck at peak hours, especially for outbound traffic exiting at the Princes Highway interchange outside Dandenong; the extension finally bypassed the entire problem. Construction on the Hallam Bypass, linking the Monash Freeway to the Princes Freeway in Berwick, began