The western stage of the East West Link has emerged as a key issue separating the major parties ahead of November’s state election.
The state government has vowed to press ahead with the multibillion-dollar freeway project as early as next year, but Labor has ditched its earlier support.
Premier Denis Napthine told a LeadWest forum in Footscray on Monday that the freeway was a critical piece of infrastructure.
“It will take pressure off the West Gate Bridge, it will certainly be a real boon to the western suburbs and it will also take those trucks out of Yarraville, Seddon and Footscray,” he said.
Dr Napthine said the West Gate Bridge carried about 200,000 vehicles a day despite being built for 160,000, causing enormous delays.
“We’re going to have an extra 500,000 people living out in the west, we’re going to have more traffic going to the ports, going across town. We need that second crossing.”
The government says work on the western section would begin in 2015 and take nine years to complete. It has finished a preliminary business case for the project, but won’t guarantee a reference design outlining the route would be released before the election.
Dr Napthine said it was yet to be decided whether the link would pass above or below the Maribyrnong River before tunnelling beneath Footscray. “The final alignment will depend on the bidders, they might want to tunnel a bit further or they may want to go a bit shorter.”
The federal government has committed $3 billion for the entire project, including $1.5 billion for the western stage.
State opposition leader Daniel Andrews said Tony Abbott was ripping billions of dollars out of hospitals, but providing money to build a road that “costs a lot but doesn’t do very much”.
“Putting a road project with no business case, a road that hasn’t even been determined where it would be built, ahead of sick kids and others in our health system just shows every Victorian that Denis Napthine and Tony Abbott have the wrong priorities.”
