The East West Link was a proposed 18-kilometre tollway in Melbourne, Australia, to connect the Eastern Freeway at Clifton Hill with the Western Ring Road at Sunshine West. The Napthine Coalition Government signed a $5.3 billion contract with the East West Connect consortium in September 2014, just prior to the November 2014 state election, to begin construction on the eastern tunnel segment of the project. It became one of the central issues in the election, and a subsequent change in government led to the project's cancellation at a cost of $1.1 billion. The problem of poor "connectivity between Melbourne's Eastern Freeway and CityLink" has since been included in Infrastructure Australia's list of Australia's 32 "highest priority" infrastructure needs and remains part of long-term state road planning.
The project's $6 billion first stage was planned as a 4.4 km tunnel from Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill to CityLink at Parkville, due for completion by early 2020. Work on the second stage, the western section between Parkville and the Western Ring Road, was expected to commence in late 2015 and be completed by 2023. The project's total cost was estimated at $15 to $17 billion.
The road project was proposed in 1999 by then Premier Jeff Kennett, but gained prominence when it became one of the chief recommendations of the 2008 East West Link Needs Assessment report, which warned that steady growth in port freight and population growth was rapidly taking Melbourne roads to capacity. The report's author, Sir Rod Eddington, said an alternative river crossing was also imperative to lessen the city's dependence on the West Gate Bridge, while an additional east–west link was needed to the city's north because of capacity constraints on the congested Monash-CityLink-West Gate corridor. Eddington said the benefits for the city included relieving congestion on Hoddle Street, reducing east–west rat running through suburban streets, assisting north–south traffic flows including public transport, and improving accessibility to city jobs for western suburbs residents.Investing in Transport: East West Link Needs Assessment, a study by Sir Rod Eddington, March 2008, Overview, pg 4, 11, 12.
The proposed freeway standard road was to start at the Western Ring Road at Laverton North, connect with Market Road, Brooklyn, then descend into two separate three-lane tunnels at Kingsville, to link with the Eastern Freeway. On-ramps and off-ramps were expected to be provided near Dynon Road, Footscray for port access, and at its junction with CityLink and the Eastern Freeway.
The project attracted public criticism over its effectiveness to reduce congestion, prioritisation ahead of public transport, transparency of business case and local effect on Royal Park and Melbourne Zoo. Local councils and public transport advocates opposed the project and several community groups were formed to block its construction.
In 2013, then Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews criticised and campaigned against the project, promising to abandon the project if Labor won government at the 2014 state election. The then Labor opposition said that part of the project's western section may still be built, though not in the government's first term. After winning office and subsequently cancelling the project, the new Labor government initially proposed its West Gate Distributor as a lower-cost port link for heavy freight vehicles, but in early 2015 unveiled plans by infrastructure company Transurban to build the multibillion-dollar West Gate Tunnel project as a more expansive route, providing a second major river crossing and a partial western bypass in the city's inner west. This alternative project began construction in early 2018 and was originally expected to be complete in 2022. However, due to financial difficulties and lengthy delays, the West Gate Tunnel was not opened until December 2025.
In November 2017, the Coalition Opposition in Victoria, led by Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, pledged to build the former project combined with the proposed North East Link if it won government at the 2018 state election. Following an upset victory for the Coalition at the 2019 federal election, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered $4 billion to build the eastern section of the project and $3 billion from the private sector, despite the Labor state government refusing to build the project. After the Coalition lost the 2022 federal election, the new Labor federal Government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed they would not fund the project, and that the funding "set aside" by the previous Government did not exist. Funding was instead committed to the proposed Suburban Rail Loop rapid transit system.
Background A proposal for a freeway network in the inner north of Melbourne first emerged in a 1954 strategic plan prepared by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. The MMBW report noted "the lack of convenient roads... to make journeys between various suburbs... without travelling towards or through the city centre", and proposed as a solution a series of orbital controlled-access roads at different distances from the CBD. One of these, numbered Route 2, extended from Hoddle Street in the inner north-east to the beginnings of Geelong Road and Ballarat Road in the west. The report called it "perhaps the most important of these inner-suburban routes".
However, it was the 1969 Melbourne Transportation Plan, prepared by a committee that included the city's major transport authorities – the MMBW, the Country Roads Board, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board, the Victorian Railways – which was to have the greatest impact on the design of the city's freeway network. The plan, based on American planning practices, envisaged a vast system of freeways connected with new and widened arterial roads at a total length of more than and a cost of over A$2.2 billion. Among the roads proposed were the Eastern Freeway from the suburbs to the inner north, and a connection from the Eastern to the western suburbs along Alexandra Parade.
However, the plan's freeway construction program would have required the compulsory acquisition of an enormous number of inner-city properties, and its publication coincided with a swelling of anti-freeway sentiment, led by academics from the University of Melbourne and residents of the inner suburbs. In 1973, under increasing political pressure, the government led by Premier Rupert Hamer "pruned" the inner-city elements of the planned network; nevertheless, and despite continued public protest, the Eastern Freeway was constructed eastwards from Hoddle Street and opened in 1977. In the aftermath of the Hamer government's concession, leaders of the CRB, which later became VicRoads, urged their planners to continue to advocate for "...the concept of building inner-city freeways."
History Kennett government
In the 1990s, the state government under Premier Jeff Kennett began its CityLink scheme: a Western Bypass and Southern Bypass, linking the Tullamarine Freeway, West Gate Freeway, and South Eastern Freeway, all of which had converged to "dead ends" in the city centre. The project, conceived as a Build–Own–Operate–Transfer partnership in which a private consortium would pay for the construction and upkeep of the road, was to have a significant impact on the structure of the city's transport network, as existing roads were regulated to encourage traffic on to the new tollways for the benefit of the consortium. Critics of the scheme argued that it was a full-scale revival of the 1969 plan, but political opposition proved insufficient to unseat the Kennett government at the 1996 election, and so it went ahead.
In 1997, with construction underway, the CityLink consortium, by then known as Transurban, publicly stated its interest in building more inner-urban roads, and named a link between the Eastern Freeway and the Tullamarine as one of its preferred options. By 1998, the consortium claimed that the "logical" project had support within the state government, and suggested that work could start immediately following the completion of CityLink, and be supplemented by an "upgrade" of Punt Road and Hoddle Street to complete an "inner ring" of freeways. Then, following his 1999 budget, Kennett announced a plan for a second privately financed scheme to link the Eastern Freeway to the Tullamarine, near the start of CityLink. Because the route travelled along sensitive areas including densely populated inner suburbs, the Melbourne General Cemetery and the large Royal Park, it was proposed as a tunnel for its entire length. However, Kennett lost the election later that year, partly due to voter concerns about tolls and delays on the remainder of the CityLink project.
Bracks government The new ministry under Premier Steve Bracks did not immediately commit to a position on the Eastern–Tullamarine link. Instead, it directed the Department of Infrastructure to conduct a Northern Central City Corridor Study to examine options for transport in the area, including the possibility of a tunnel along the entire route. However, Bracks had promised in opposition not to build toll roads, limiting the options for financing the project. While the study was underway, lobby groups including the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce and an Infrastructure Planning Council commissioned by the government recommended construction of the link.
The Northern Central City Corridor Study released its final report in late 2003. It found that "[a]n east-west tunnel is the only real way of removing through traffic (including trucks) from Royal Park, but it is costly and gives low economic returns." A detailed assessment costed the project at $810 million, and found it would substantially reduce traffic on Alexandra Parade, but also noted that only 25% of Eastern Freeway traffic was attempting to bypass the CBD. The government announced in response it would not develop the link "in the foreseeable future."
In the following years, Transurban continued to support the road, which it called the Northern Tunnel, and argued it should be completed in tandem with a second crossing of the Yarra River, which it said was necessary to take pressure off the West Gate Bridge. Then, in 2005, an infrastructure strategy prepared by the City of Melbourne adopted the East–West Integrated Transport Proposal, codenamed "the Big Idea". In addition to the tunnel between the Eastern and Tullamarine freeways that had been supported by other lobby groups, the council's proposal advocated for a second stage from the Tullamarine interchange to the Western Ring Road at Deer Park. Although it faced immediate criticism from public transport and environment advocates, as well as from within the council, the combined project gained support with other lobby groups and the state government.
As the 2006 election approached, the state government refused to commit to any part of the project, and did not include it in a 20-year transport plan released that May.
Brumby government The project became one of the key recommendations of the 2008 East-West Link Needs Assessment report by Sir Rod Eddington. Eddington identified two possible routes to link the Eastern Freeway with Melbourne's western suburbs, both of which formed an alternative to the West Gate Bridge and provided connections to the port and CityLink. He identified a single alignment from the Eastern Freeway to the port area—under Alexandra Parade, Princes Street and Royal Park—and two possible routes from the port to the western suburbs: A tunnel under Footscray and the Maribyrnong River along the general alignment of Buckley Street and Sunshine Road to connect Dynon Road with the Deer Park Bypass; or An elevated road over the Maribyrnong River linking Dynon Road with the West Gate Freeway near Williamstown Road. Both options would include a major interchange in the port precinct.