West Gate Tunnel | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Freeway (Under construction) |
| Length | 4 km (2.5 mi) |
| Opened | 2025 (scheduled)[1] |
| Major junctions | |
| West end |  West Gate FreewayYarraville, Melbourne |
 Footscray Road | |
| East end |  CityLinkDocklands, Melbourne |
| Highway system | |
| ---- | |
The West Gate Tunnel, formerly known as the Western Distributor, is a four kilometre toll road currently under construction in Melbourne, Australia, to link the West Gate Freeway at Yarraville with the Port of Melbourne and CityLink at Docklands via twin tunnels beneath Yarraville, as well as a bridge and elevated road section.
The $10 billion project[2] was proposed by infrastructure company Transurban in 2014 as a means of alleviating congestion on the M1 corridor, providing a new river crossing as an alternative to the West Gate Bridge and moving trucks out of residential streets in the city's inner west. The freeway-standard link includes two tunnels with three lanes each that are approximately 4 km long outbound and 2.8 km long inbound, a new bridge over the Maribyrnong River, and an elevated road above Footscray Road. The project will also widen the West Gate Freeway from eight to 12 lanes between the M80 Ring Road and the West Gate Bridge.[3]
The tunnel project replaced an earlier $680 million freight route, the West Gate Distributor, which the Australian Labor Party had taken to the 2014 state election as an alternative to the abandoned East West Link tollway. The construction cost was initially announced as $5.5 billion.
The Victorian government announced in December 2015 it would proceed with the project. Planning approvals were granted in December 2017 and major construction of the tunnel and elevated tollway began in January 2018. It was scheduled for completion on 30 September 2022,[4] although delays related to disposal of contaminated soil have pushed back its opening until at least 2025[1] and its cost may be as high as $11.9 billion.
- ^ a b Rocca, Patrick (17 December 2021). "New West Gate Tunnel deal to cost Victorian taxpayers another $1.9 billion". ABC News. Melbourne. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
- ^ Sakkal, Paul; Jacks, Timna (17 December 2021). "Tunnel to cost state extra $1.9b". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
- ^ "West Gate Tunnel Project design overview". West Gate Tunnel Project. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
- ^ Jacks, Timna; Hatch, Patrick (5 May 2020). "West Gate Tunnel soil dumping late, pushing out project timeline". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 10 May 2020.