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July 29, 2026 — 5:02pm
In a global city such as Sydney, a place where people want to live and work, it will never be possible to prevent congestion. But the major traffic delays experienced by motorists during the morning peak on Sydney’s M5 motorway while a tunnel ventilator fan was repaired could fairly be described as a commuting catastrophe.
The tunnel on the M5 motorway was closed for more than six hours on Wednesday, and city-bound traffic backed up more than 13 kilometres at times as crew with cranes worked to fix the fan.
The toll road operator Transurban had closed the two-lane tunnel to conduct routine maintenance in the early hours of Wednesday when workers discovered safety problems with a fan inside the tunnel. A decision was made on safety grounds about 4.16am to replace the fan and keep the eastbound lanes shut after 5am, despite the looming morning peak.
It was the latest episode in the saga of the M5 East Tunnel, a vital part of Sydney’s infrastructure that has been plagued by operational problems almost from the start. The project was completed on a tight budget and under an aggressive schedule in 2001 and was soon bedevilled by repeated shutdowns – accidents, flooding and computer glitches. And so it went. Only a year ago, a crane rolled in the eastbound tunnel, and it was shut for nearly 24 hours.
Addressing the latest glitch, the general manager of WestConnex at Transurban, Denise Kelly, told 702 ABC Sydney that it was deemed unsafe to wait until this evening to remove the fan. “That was a question we asked ourselves, and we assessed the safety situation, and safety is the priority, and we decided that the safe course of action was to remove it now,” Kelly said.
Significantly, the discovery of one faulty fan required the entire tunnel to be shut down.
Could it happen again? Probably. The fan that broke down is one of 147 in the M5 eastbound tunnel, and based on yesterday’s experience, Transurban does not appear to have a plan B should another break down.
Except for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Harbour Tunnel, Transurban operates the rest of our city’s toll system, including the M5.
Given the multitude of troubles such a monopoly would throw up, the company would surely be better prepared. Yet in the event, it seemed nonplussed, its failure to alert motorists adequately clearly visible in the long lines of vehicles that for hours continued to be gridlocked.
Kelly’s obfuscation and refusal to commit to a blanket toll relief to compensate affected drivers served only to make Transurban look ridiculous for allowing a single fan to wreak so much havoc.
Premier Chris Minns said the government would seek answers from Transurban about its maintenance schedule and the chances of a repeat incident. “I know that’s cold comfort for people that were stuck in traffic this morning. I’m genuinely sorry about that,” Minns said.
Transurban is making a mint from Sydney motorists. It must do better.
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