The controversial East West Link project is again set to be a key state election battleground after the Victorian Liberals put the road at the heart of their $30 billion “super highway” infrastructure pitch.
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The move is a political gamble by Liberal leader Matthew Guy after voters rejected the road in 2014.
The opposition has promised a package of three toll roads across Melbourne that together would allow motorists to drive from Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs to Geelong with hitting a traffic light.
The Liberals have now abandoned their opposition to the West Gate Tunnel by declaring it will be built if they win government, adopted Labor’s signature North-East Link project and redeclared their commitment to the East West Link.
While much of the detail on routes and funding is missing, the package gives Mr Guy a clear policy position on roads as population pressure and congestion shape as major election issues.
Liberal strategists believe congestion has become such a headache for Melburnians that this pitch will be a winner at the November poll.
But they must compete with an unprecedented infrastructure blitz from the Andrews Labor government, which will spend more than $13 billion in the coming financial year alone on its roads, railways and other projects.
Shadow treasurer Michael O’Brien said he did not accept that the 2014 election was lost on the back of the East West Link.
“People stuck on the Eastern Freeway know it needs to be built,” he said.
“You either build the projects that connect our freeways and build for the next generation or you consign yourself and your kids to more of the same.”
The opposition’s roads package now features three new toll roads, including the North East Link that will connect the Eastern Freeway with the M80 Ring Road.
On Thursday Mr Guy also committed to building Labor’s West Gate Tunnel, a tolled alternative to the West Gate Bridge, despite vociferously attacking the project’s funding model that is predicated on extending CityLink tolls.
The Coalition’s roads policy aims to shore up votes in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, including Mr Guy’s Bulleen electorate, but Liberal insiders believe it will harness broader frustrations about Melbourne’s growing traffic woes.
The roads package offers voters a clear choice in November with Labor staunchly opposed to the East West Link, which Premier Daniel Andrews described as a “dud” on Thursday.
After the Andrews government was elected it scrapped the project at a cost of $1.3 billion.
The Coalition is considering two options for the East West Link, one which would run underground from the Eastern Freeway to the West Gate Tunnel in West Melbourne.
The alternative would connect the Eastern Freeway and CityLink around Parkville.
On Thursday Mr Guy dodged questions about the proposed routes, including which would be longer.
“I’m not a civil engineer,” he said. “I’m not going to answer civil engineering questions.”
The Coalition has committed $2 billion to the roads package in addition to $1.75 billion from the federal government for the North West Link and $3 billion for the East West Link.
The Coalition would build the East West Link first to address the congested end of the Eastern Freeway before completing construction of the North East Link.
Both roads would be completed by 2027.
Mr Andrews hit back on Thursday morning, arguing that work for the West Gate Tunnel and North East Link was already under way and stood by his decision to scrap the East West Link.
"[The Liberals] have opposed [and] criticised the projects, but now they are great fans of them," he told ABC radio.
"[East West Link] is a dud project that doesn't stack up ... we're building the projects that do stack up."
