The Australian government this week released the proposed route for the four-kilometer Footscray tunnel in Melbourne. Roads Minister Tim Pallas announced that the AUD 5bn tunnel would begin at the Port of Melbourne and emerge in an industrial area in West Footscray.
The project will avoid all residential areas but up to 80 businesses could be affected by construction of the freeway as a whole.
Potentially paid for in part by the Federal Government as a ‘nation building’ endeavour, the Department of Transport had entered into 27 contracts with consultancy firms by June. Construction is unlikely to begin on this portion tunnel before 2013. It is part of a larger, 30-year Melbourne transport project that plans to overhaul the existing infrastructure.
The situation has drawn political attention. Promoted by Pallas and fellow Labor Party MP (for Footscray), Marsha Thomson, as a means of reducing local congestion, particularly from HGVs, the Green candidate, Janet Rice, has questioned these views. “If the tunnel is not tolled, it will take the traffic off the Calder, City Link and from the suburban growth areas and funnel them straight down residential Ashley Street and Dempster Street,” Ms. Rice said. “If the tunnel is tolled, trucks won’t use it, so they’ll still be hurtling through Footscray and clogging up the Westgate.”
