West Gate Tunnel and Metro Tunnel to increase traffic

MORE than 350,000 trucks will squeeze on to Melbourne’s congested roads as projects like the West Gate Tunnel and new Metro line ramp up.

MORE than 350,000 trucks a year will clog the north of the CBD and nearby freeways as multibillion-dollar road and rail projects are constructed.

For up to four years, already packed CBD streets, major freeways and inner-west roads will be filled with semi-trailers carting debris from tunnelling work in the West Gate Tunnel and Melbourne Metro Tunnel.

At the height of the excavation a truck will leave the $5.5 billion West Gate Tunnel’s Footscray’s construction site every two minutes, planning documents reveal.

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Another 426 daily trucks will add to commuter woes when they leave the Metro Tunnel’s nearby Western Portal and Arden sites.

Work in April this year on the Metro Tunnel project. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Together the projects will send a truck onto the CityLink and the West Gate Freeway every 1.3 minutes.

The West Gate Tunnel has been touted as the solution to traffic woes on the West Gate Bridge and Freeway but its Environmental Effect Statement reveals that the freeway will carry hundreds of extra trucks every day during its construction.

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Road lane widths will also be crunched, which is expected to slow traffic, and the project’s planning does not rule out using residential roads.

Melbourne’s new Metro station names. Picture: AAP

“Trucks would minimise haulage on residential roads and use the freeway or arterial road network wherever practicable,’’ the project’s Environmental Effects Statement says.

Minister for Roads Luke Donnellan said the tunnel was one of the biggest road projects in Melbourne’s history.

“We’ll keep traffic moving during construction by keeping sufficient lanes open on major roads,” he said.

The Andrews Government is expecting construction to start in 2018 and finish in 2022.

The $5.5 billion West Gate Tunnel will remove over 1.5 million cubic metres of rock and soil to build the 4km tunnel linking CityLink with the West Gate Freeway.

Opposition roads spokesman David Hodgett said the project would condemn residents to years of trucks thundering down their streets.

“Tolls on existing roads, traffic lights on freeways and potential for locals to be subjected to hordes of construction vehicles, all for Daniel Andrews’ dud project,” he said.

University of Melbourne transport academic Dr John Stone said recent assessments had been designed to stack up the merits of the project, but many issues had been ignored.

“This project emerged from a government promise to get truck off the streets of Yarraville but it is putting them on other streets,” he said.

“We’re still going to have trucks on residential streets.”