Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel project has hit a major milestone following the completion of the entire road surface on a series of connections that will link the tunnel to the city.
Crews recently completed the final concrete road surfaces of the bridges and elevated roads with which will take drivers from the West Gate Tunnel to West Melbourne, Docklands and the city.
The Tunnel will provide greater connections for Melbourne’s freight industry with direct road access to the Port of Melbourne at Mackenzie Road and Appleton Dock Road.
“We’re delivering the infrastructure Melbourne’s west needs and but the end of 2025 we’ll have taken 9000 trucks off local roads every day,” Minister for Transport Danny Pearson says.
Remaining works on the city connections will include the installation of drainage, sign gantries, electrical and safety systems, and the final layer of asphalting.
To mark the occasion, Pearson and Premier Jacinta Allan joined project workers for the first car ride to the project’s highest point – a 27-metre-high ramp connecting CityLink to the new elevated road above Footscray Road.
During the build 278 separate spans of road were installed to build the vital series of connections, with the longest spanning roughly 100 metres.
“We said we would build the West Gate Tunnel and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Allan says. “Creating new city connections that will link the twin tunnels under Yarraville to the CBD, and a vital second river crossing that will cut travel times between Melbourne’s west and the city.”
The West Gate Tunnel project was initially projected to cost $500 million but was later revised to $5.5 billion.
Major construction commenced in 2018 and it is expected to be completed in November 2025.
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