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After a decade of turbulent planning, a doubling of its cost, and years of delays caused by disputes over toxic soil, the West Gate Tunnel — a major new toll road intended to ease traffic in Melbourne’s west — opened to the public on Sunday morning.
After a restricted opening just after midnight, the $10.2 billion project, which is made up of 6.8 kilometres of tunnels connecting Melbourne’s west with the CBD, officially opened at 7am.
The new tunnel was almost empty on Sunday morning at 8.30am, with a handful of cars and trucks using the new roadway between Dynon Road in West Melbourne and Millers Road in Altona North.
At its peak, the alternative to the West Gate Bridge is projected to cater for 67,000 vehicles a day, and remove 28,000 trucks from the bridge and suburban streets in Melbourne’s inner west.
A month of free travel on weekends through the tunnel will begin in January.
The roadway – which has three lanes in each direction – descends under the West Gate Freeway, with large architectural “fishing nets” soaring above the tunnel’s entrances and exits.
The entrance to the West Gate Tunnel on Sunday morning. Credit: Penny Stephens
The largest, at the northern entrance in Yarraville, is 38 metres high and wide and consists of 364 laminated timber beams.
Green and rainbow lights illuminate the walls of the tunnel at different intervals.
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The outbound tunnel officially opened at 12.10am, and the inbound tunnel opened at 2.15am.
The state government projects drivers travelling into the city from Melbourne’s west or Geelong will save up to 20 minutes on their journey.
A trip through the tunnel will set motorists back $4.09 for a car and $6.54 for a ute or van, and more than double that if they exit into the CBD’s west during the morning peak.
Transurban is paying for $6.1 billion of the West Gate Tunnel’s construction costs in exchange for operating tolls on the new road and a 10-year extension to its CityLink contract.
Premier Jacinta Allan said she did not regret that Labor embarked on the project a decade ago, despite billions of dollars in cost overruns and a three-year delay.
“Yes, this was a really complex project, and it did face some challenges on its journey,” she said.
Rainbow lights inside the West Gate Tunnel on Sunday morning.Credit: Penny Stephens
“[But] it’s worth it today because of what it means right now: an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, trucks off local roads, direct access to the Port of Melbourne, getting people home to their families sooner.
“It’ll be also worth it in the decades ahead because as our city and state grows, this is exactly the sort of infrastructure we need to invest in today to support that growth into the future.”
The tunnel is monitored from Transurban’s Footscray control centre, where crews monitor almost 900 camera feeds from across Melbourne looking for breakdowns and bingles.
Roads Minister Melissa Horne said the tunnel would change the way Melburnians travel across the city’s western suburbs, giving commuters “faster, safer and more reliable trips”.
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