VTA welcomes reallocation of funds and North East Link investigation commitment
The Victorian Transport Association (VTA) welcomes the federal government’s reallocation of $1.5 billion funds originally earmarked for the East West Link to other Victorian road infrastructure projects.
The reallocation will see $1 billion spent on Monash Freeway upgrades, $700 million on M80 Ring Road upgrades, and $690 million on regional and rural road upgrade and improvements.
The reallocation is based on a funding-match proposal that will require the state government to match the federal spending, leaving Victoria with $3 billion funds to spend on road and rail projects.
Announcing the move, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the federal government had succeeded in breaking the deadlock over the unused funding.
“It [the funding] was sitting there not creating one job, not relieving congestion,” Turnbull says.
“We have broken the deadlock.”
Welcoming the announcement, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says he is optimistic that the state government will be able to negotiate the details of the investment with the federal government.
“There’s a few details to be worked through, but today is really good news and I’m confident we can work through those details soon,” Andrews said earlier.
VTA CEO Peter Anderson also welcomed a $30 million funding to investigate the feasibility of the North East Link connection of the M80 Ring Road with Eastlink.
“It is encouraging that we finally have a serious amount of money that has been allocated to the vital congestion-busting North East Link connection, which is the VTA and RACV’s priority road project, and now Infrastructure Victoria’s priority infrastructure for the state,” Anderson says.
“Factoring in election commitment funding, we now have $35 million to for formative studies on the North East Link connection, which Infrastructure Victoria says will generate returns of between $1.40 and $2.10 for every $1 invested.
“Daniel Andrews said last month that it is ‘pretty farcical’ that we ‘still don’t have the ring road acting as a ring around the city’, and with this significant funding we can now finally get on with a serious study of where it should go and how it can be quickly and efficiently built.
“We are very encouraged that this money is finally available for Victorian road users to benefit from, and that there is an acceptable distribution of funding between important regional and metropolitan projects.”