West Gate Tunnel
Supporting Melbourne’s growing regional population with stronger connectivity to the city.
The West Gate Tunnel Project will create a tunnel and an elevated motorway that connects the West Gate Freeway with the Port of Melbourne, CityLink and the CBD. The West Gate Freeway is one of the busiest roads, moving more than 200,000 vehicles each day. The West Gate Tunnel project gives Melbourne a second freeway link between the west and the city, an alternate river crossing and will ease pressure on the West Gate Bridge.
Global design and consultancy firm, Arcadis, along with The APP Group and WSP were appointed as the Independent Reviewer and Environmental Auditor for the project. The role covers off the preferred respondent as well as the design and construction phases.
In 2023, the Tunnel Boring Machine Vida completed its 2.8km journey after 7,000 combined hours of tunnelling to become the largest ever breakthrough of a tunnel boring machine in the Southern Hemisphere. The project is expected to be completed in 2025.
The West Gate Tunnel will create better connections to Melbourne for growing regional areas including Ballarat, Geelong and Wyndham. Trucks will have better access to the port and be able to avoid residential roads. Melbourne's west will be better connected to CityLink, Footscray Road, Dynon Road and Wurundjeri Way.
The project includes:
- widening the West Gate Freeway from 8 to 12 lanes and added express lanes.
- a tunnel from the West Gate Freeway to the Maribyrnong River and the Port of Melbourne.
- a bridge over the Maribyrnong River, linking to an elevated road along Footscray Road, providing more options for pedestrians travelling to the CBD north.
- smart technology throughout the tunnel linking it to other freeway management systems across the city.
The project is a partnership between the Victorian Government and Transurban and will be built by construction contractors CPB Contractors and John Holland (CPBJH JV).
Images: Courtesy of the West Gate Tunnel Project.
