4 years ago
GOVERNMENT WILL DELIVER THE EAST WEST LINK
The Hon Scott Morrison MP
The Morrison Government will end inaction on the East West Link once and for all, increasing its investment and covering the full government contribution required for the eastern section.
By putting $4 billion on the table there will be no excuse to not build this critical and missing part of Melbourne’s road network.
The East West Link will get Melbourne moving and we just need to get it done.
We respect the Victorian Government does not share this priority for residents in eastern Melbourne. That’s why we are prepared to go ahead without them, and let them press ahead with their other priorities.
Our investment is about standing by eastern Melburnians who want to get out of the gridlock so they can spend more time with their families and so they can get to work without wasting hours each week on the road.
Traffic would already be flowing on the already built East West Link if Labor had not cancelled the project in 2015 – wasting $1.3 billion.
When it is finally built it will cut travel times between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink will go from 27 to just seven minutes, bypassing 23 sets of traffic lights.
The East West Link will not only bust congestion across the east and into the city, it will transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of Melbourne residents.
At its busiest point, over 75,000 people are using the Eastern Freeway and getting stuck at Hoddle Street. Now, with over 500,000 more people in Melbourne since it was first proposed, it is even more necessary than ever.
The existing road network across the north of the city is under pressure – by 2031 there will be 400,000 vehicles travelling east-west across the city.
In 2015 Infrastructure Australia said the section between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink had the highest road congestion delay cost, and Infrastructure Australia and Infrastructure Victoria have both highlighted East West Link as a priority.
The eastern section of the East West Link will:
- Cater for around 80,000 vehicles shortly after opening, increasing to 100,000 – 120,000 in 2031
- Cut travel time between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink to just seven minutes, bypassing 23 sets of traffic lights
- Reduce congestion on Alexandra Parade, Johnston Street and Macarthur Road by 30 per cent, and 10 percent on Hoddle Street (south of Alexandra Parade)
- Alleviate critical congestion at the end of the Eastern Freeway
- Address chronic congestion around Flemington Road, the CityLink off ramp, Mt Alexander Road, Racecourse Road and Elliott Avenue
- Boost cycling and walking, with $70 million set aside for 15km worth of cycling and pedestrian initiatives
- Include extra public transport capacity for buses and improvements to existing north-south tram routes
- Create 3,700 jobs during construction
We've been tackling the bottlenecks and pinchpoints across Melbourne and the East West Link adds to our congestion busting program in Victoria."
In the past 18 months we have increased our commitment to transport infrastructure in Victoria by $14 billion, and by investing more than $20 billion into infrastructure throughout the state over the next decade we are far exceeding Victoria’s population share.
Our plan to bust congestion and better cities is one way that we will do our bit to make life that bit easier for Melburnians.