[1] The passing of the Highways and Vehicles Act of 1924[5] provided for the declaration of State Highways, roads two-thirds financed by the State government through the Country Roads Board.

With Victoria's conversion to the newer alphanumeric system in the late 1990s, the section between Ravenhall and Ardeer (where it met the Western Ring Road) was upgraded to National Highway M8; it was left as National Highway 8 east of the ring road along its original alignment into central Melbourne.

Tram route 82 runs along the Footscray section of Ballarat Road, between Gordon & Droop Streets.

The Serviceton railway line from Southern Cross runs parallel to Ballarat Road from Sunshine about 1 km to the south, with stations at Albion, and Deer Park.

With three lanes running in each direction, between Deer Park and the Western Ring Road, this was one of the worst bottlenecks in western Melbourne with traffic reaching 70,000 vehicles per day, with 10 per cent of this consisting of heavy vehicles.