Matt Johnston: Why Metro rail loop will probably finish before West Gate Tunnel

A government desperate for a major road project to hang its hat on has left the $6.7b West Gate Tunnel plagued by problems.

The $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel will connect the West Gate Freeway to CityLink and provide a major alternative to the West Gate Bridge. Picture: Alex Coppel

Two major projects worth $20 billion (and rising) are currently being built in Melbourne.

Both will change the daily commute for hundreds of thousands of people, but have taken very different routes.

One was supposed to be finished in 2022 but the government admitted it will be lucky open by late 2024.

The other was supposed to open in 2026 but could now open as early as 2024.

One is the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel, which will connect the West Gate Freeway to CityLink and provide a major alternative to the West Gate Bridge.

The other is the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel that will connect South Yarra to Kensington and provide an alternative to the City Loop.

How did it get to this?

Two projects that began life with a four year difference in construction timelines have somehow veered into the same lane and are now neck and neck heading towards (hopefully, in the case of the WGT) the finish line?

The major difference, although it is one of many, is the contract.

The $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel will connect the West Gate Freeway to CityLink and provide a major alternative to the West Gate Bridge. Picture: Alex Coppel

The WGT was rushed and was created by a government desperate for a road project after it killed off East West Link stage one in its first few months in office.

Tolling giant Transurban smelt an opportunity and went in hard.

Once the job was ticked off it contracted to builders who started an industrial relations brawl.

Contaminated soil was then found in an area that includes industrial land and the Coode Island fires – who would have thought?

If the government was the head contractor, perhaps the situation would have been dealt with differently. Given it was Transurban and John Holland/CPB, a messy fight ensued and it landed in court. The government sat limply on the sidelines as placards that proudly stated the project would open in 2022 (an election year!) were torn off the walls of the West Gate Freeway.

Metro is far from perfect, and similar scoping problems have occurred that has blown out costs by $2.7 billion.

And yet, from the outside the project is running relatively smoothly and will almost certainly finish early.

There, the government has had a greater level of control and dealt with – sometimes with money and sometimes not – with issues as they emerged.

Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan will now be betting you would rather cough up more but have a project open early.

From the outside the Metro Tunnel project is running relatively smoothly and will almost certainly finish early. Picture: Daniel Pockett

In the case of WGT, don’t bank on paying less for a road opening late.

Taxpayers will share some of the burden of costs on the WGT – even if only a portion.

Why?

Put simply, the government needs the road to open.

The government says it has learnt its lesson from the disastrous public private partnership model it embarked upon with the WGT.

Corey Hannett, the infrastructure chief co-ordinating an $80 billion build across the state, pointed to changes in North East Link contracts, where the state will assume more risk but also more control.

He didn’t say it explicitly, but the subtext was clear.

We ain’t going the WGT route again.

This week, former Western Australian chief justice Wayne Martin will hand down a ruling on who should be responsible for the contaminated soil disposal on the $6.7bn road.

Once that happens, and the costs of the disaster are made clear, the government should come clean on exactly what went wrong and what it learnt from the project.

Saying it has learnt its lesson is one thing.

Explaining how and disclosing the detail of its dealings early on in the piece, is quite another.

I wouldn’t bet on that happening, given the people involved in the early days.

What I would consider plonking some cash on, if such a book existed, would be that the Metro line opens before the WGT.

Imagine that.

The rail project that was due to open in 2026 reaching the finish line before the road due to finish in 2022.

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