Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Doncaster Road section carried around 50,000 vehicles per hour at peak, but this number dropped in 1997 after the extension of the Eastern Freeway.

[2] This was extended further west via a new bridge over Moonee Ponds Creek to connect directly to the Tullamarine Freeway extension and Pascoe Vale Road when it opened in 1970 (plans to do so had existed since 1950[2]).

Work on the direct link between Bell and Banksia Streets (the "Bell-Banksia Link") in western Heidelberg, built to relieve traffic congestion and improve safety around the Burgundy Street shopping precinct, started in December 1988[10] and was completed on 1 July 1992, at a total cost of $40 million.

The south-eastern end of Metropolitan Route 40 was later re-routed to run across the entire corridor to Edithvale, replacing Metropolitan Route 11, in 1989, with an adjustment running from Burgundy, Jika and Dora Streets to the Bell-Banksia Link (and Banksia Street) through Heidelberg when it opened in 1992.

[citation needed] In January 2010, rail tracks in Nunawading were lowered below-ground as part of a level-crossing elimination project.