Big sign that West Gate Tunnel project is back on track

After a toxic soil dispute stopped works on the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel build, workers could soon be heading back to the project.

West Gate Tunnel works could soon restart. Picture: Ian Currie

Workers are being recruited back to the West Gate Tunnel for site training as early as next month in a sign the struggling project will finally crank up in the New Year.

Tunnellers were let go from the $6.7 billion project, which will link the West Gate Freeway to CityLink, when major works stopped late last year due to a dispute about handling toxic soil.

Legal disputes then broke out between the builder, made up of construction giants CPB and John Holland, and project proponent Transurban, over who should pay for blowouts.

As revealed by the Herald Sun earlier this year, the state government has now agreed to cover some of the costs of removing soil in a bid to get the signature road project back on the road.

The bid to entice workers back to the project will be made more difficult by the fact many tunnellers left the state for other jobs when let go from WGT, particularly as the pandemic took hold in Victoria.

A government spokeswoman said works were still ongoing on the project, but that it was up to the contract holders to deal with the toxic soil disposal.

The project was halted for several months. Picture: Ian Currie

“The fastest way for work on the tunnel to commence on the West Gate Tunnel project is for Transurban and its builders CPB and John Holland to select a site for the safe disposal of the tunnel soil and get the site operating,” she said.

Project sources said it was likely that once a soil disposal site was selected, it would take up to four months for infrastructure to be built at that landfill facility.

This is because the soil is contaminated with asbestos and an industrial chemical called PFAS and strict controls are required.

Planning permits are still needed for the landfills ready to take the spoil, but the government is close to signing off on multiple locations to spread work across sites.

Maddingley Brown Coal and Hi-Quality in Bulla have been frontrunners in preparing their facilities throughout 2020, but Cleanaway in Ravenhall caught up in October once it secured approval from the Environment Protection Authority.

The builder of the WGT will need to award contracts to one or multiple sites to handle the spoil.

Any soil dug up with PFAS levels above the EPA’s approved threshold, expected to be a very small amount, would be dealt with separately by the project builders and would likely need to be treated or destroyed.

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Originally published as Big sign that West Gate Tunnel project is back on track