By Adam Carey, The Age
A dangerous “pinch point” on the M80 Ring Road will be widened and made safer with the federal government matching a $150 million commitment from the Victorian government to upgrade the road.
The two-lane stretch of the ring road between Sunshine Avenue and the Calder Freeway will be widened to three lanes at a cost of $300 million, with overhead electronic signage, variable speed limit signs and CCTV cameras installed.
The EJ Whitten Bridge across the Maribyrnong River will be widened and will get new safety barriers as part of the project.
Roads Minister Luke Donnellan said he welcomed the federal funding, which would help ease congestion and make the road
safer.
But the federal/state stand-off continues over the Western Distributor, a toll road through Melbourne’s west recently proposed by Transurban.
The Abbott government said on Friday that the project “has some potential” but it would not help fund the road if it meant motorists in Melbourne’s east would have to pay extra tolls to build a road in the west.
The extension of tolls on CityLink could not be supported “without significant benefits to the entire network”, the government said in a joint statement from Prime Minister Tony Abbott and assistant Infrastructure Minister Jamie Briggs.
The federal government also demanded the Victorian government help pay for the
$5.5 billion tunnel and elevated road, a condition that is absent from Transurban’s proposal.
The Abbott government wants Transurban to give Infrastructure Australia, its adviser on major projects, a copy of the business case for the road. But it is still holding out hope that it can revive the East West Link road, cancelled by the Andrews government last year.
The Abbott government last year ripped $500 million in funding away from the ring road widening project to help pay for the western section of the East West Link.
It remains in a tussle with the Andrews government over the fate of $3 billion it committed to the East West Link, and continues to demand the money be returned to federal coffers.
