The West Gate Tunnel Project is more than just a road

Melbourne's major freeways move millions of people and important goods every day and the West Gate Freeway is one of the busiest, moving more than 200,000 vehicles a day.

The West Gate Bridge is at capacity and a single incident can bring the traffic network to a standstill. In addition, trucks in the west have no alternative but to use local roads to get to the port.

The West Gate Tunnel Project will ease congestion on the West Gate Freeway and West Gate Bridge, and reduce the number of trucks on residential streets.

Key benefits

The West Gate Tunnel Project will end Melbourne's reliance on the West Gate Bridge by building a new tunnel and new links to the port, CityLink and the city.

Travel made easy for motorists

When completed, the West Gate Tunnel Project will:

  • provide a necessary second river crossing
  • widen the West Gate Freeway from 8 to 12 through lanes, including express lanes for vehicles heading to the south and south eastern suburbs
  • give drivers a choice between the tunnel or the bridge
  • ease congestion for the 200,000 cars that use the West Gate Freeway daily
  • create better connections to Melbourne to support the travel needs of growing regional populations especially in the Ballarat, Geelong and the Wyndham areas
  • enable better access to the port for trucks, allowing them to avoid taking residential roads
  • better connect Melbourne's west to CityLink, Footscray Road, Dynon Road and Wurundjeri Way
  • better manage traffic flows and incidents through smart technology.

Connecting the community

The project will provide significant benefits to the local community including:

  • adding 9km of new and improved noise walls
  • getting 9000 trucks a day off residential streets in the inner west
  • reduced noise in parks and sports grounds including Crofts Reserve, McIvor Reserve, Donald McLean Reserve and Hyde Street Reserve
  • $10 million in funding to community-led projects and organisations through the West Gate Neighbourhood Fund
  • more than 14km of new and upgraded cycling and walking links to popular trails and parks, with new crossings under the West Gate Freeway and major roads
  • an express route to the CBD for cyclists via a 2.5km elevated veloway above Footscray Road
  • better connected communities on either side of the freeway by building two improved, safer pedestrian bridges at Muir Street and Rosala Avenue.

Improving local environments

The project will improve community spaces in the inner west by:

  • creating nearly 9 hectares of new parks and wetlands
  • planting more than 17,000 trees and tens of thousands of native and indigenous shrubs and grasses
  • enhancing waterway environments – new wetlands will be used to treat stormwater and new plantings to rehabilitate creek banks and develop animal habitats
  • improving landscaping along Maribyrnong River and Kororoit, Stony and Moonee Ponds creeks
  • improving air quality and reduce noise by removing trucks from local streets.