Melbourne seriously needs major road projects: Sir Rod Eddington

UPDATE: ONE of Australia’s top transport experts says the axed East West Link between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink in Parkville must be built.

ONE of Australia’s top transport experts says the axed East West Link between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink in Parkville must be built.

Sir Rod Eddington — who advised the Brumby government to build the road in 2008 — has put Premier Daniel Andrews on notice that a rapidly growing Melbourne desperately needs new routes to combat rising congestion.

“I think the pressure of traffic will ultimately drive an east-west tunnel in the way I recommended ... I think there are real challenges in the east-west corridor,” Sir Rod said.

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Sir Rod Eddington says Melbourne is in serious need of major road projects. Picture: Paul Jeffers

The Andrews Government ditched the Coalition’s proposed East West Link stage one in 2015, wasting about $1.2 billion of taxpayer money.

Speaking on Thursday at an Infrastructure Partnerships Australia event, Sir Rod lamented that the project had become a “political football”.

“Well, clearly that was a setback. It cost the state some money and I don’t think anyone would have wanted that to happen,” he told the Herald Sun after the forum.

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Sir Rod, acknowledged as an international infrastructure expert, proposed a link between the Eastern Freeway and Western Ring Road in 2008, after then premier John Brumby commissioned an independent assessment of the city’s transport needs.

In 2013, the Coalition decided to build stage one of the link, a tunnel connecting the Eastern Freeway and CityLink. But a newly elected Mr Andrews ditched it, though contracts had been signed.

His government has since pushed ahead with a variation on the project’s western section, the West Gate Tunnel, construction of which is due to start next year.

Sir Rod said that tunnel would address some of the problems he had raised in his study.

“It was clear to me that the greater set of challenges were down at the western end.

“We have a lot of eggs in the West Gate Bridge basket. If something were to happen to that, it would bring the city to a halt. And we need to do something about the trucks that clog up the

residential roads around the port,” Sir Rod said.

But he said the eastern section must also proceed.

An artist’s impression of the entrance to an East-West link tunnel.

Asked to prioritise the East West Link and the government’s planned North East Link (between Greensborough and Ringwood), Sir Rod said: “Forget trying to prioritise them. You’ve got to do both.”

The former Infrastructure Australia chairman said: “The question of how you do them and when you do them, that detail can be debated, but they need to happen.”

Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said Sir Rod could not have been clearer: “Victoria needs an alternative to the West Gate Bridge.

“That is what the West Gate Tunnel will deliver, and we are getting on with it. (It) will slash congestion along the M1 corridor from Pakenham to Geelong and take thousands of trucks off local roads,” he said.

“The East West Link was a dud project that lost 55c for every dollar of investment.

“It would have dumped traffic on Hoddle St and failed to address our most significant transport needs.”

Traffic on the West Gate Freeway. Picture: Hamish Blair

Sir Rod, a former boss of British Airways and of Victorian Major Events, also welcomed the completion of Regional Rail Link and the start of the Metro Tunnel.

But he was concerned about “substantial resistance in some quarters” to building roads.

“My view was really simple, that the car is a really important part, and the van and the freight vehicles a very important part, of the livability and the workability of the city.”

He said Melbourne airport would need a rail link, but the timing had to be right.

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