Eastern Freeway to Ballarat Road tunnel best solution
Thu, Dec 13 2007

With a senior Victorian official going to China to study tunnelling techniques it appears that the Victorian Government is seriously considering a tunnel connecting the Eastern Freeway with CityLink.

Dr Pieter Nagel, Director of VU’s Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (ILSCM) said: “This is no surprise as this idea has been on the table for some time now. However, this is not a real ‘east meets west’ solution that many people are making it out to be, and the concept raises some serious issues.”

“Connecting the Eastern Freeway only to CityLink, will limit the efficiencies that could be brought by connecting right through to Footscray. While a longer connection will be much more costly, it can be done in stages. It needs to be designed to go through to Footscray – even if the first stage is only built to CityLink.“

“The Victorian Government needs to be serious about the west.”

“Connecting a tunnel from the Eastern Freeway only to CityLink, still takes the traffic over the Westgate Bridge. It resolves a traffic problem for the people using the Eastern Freeway into the city, but does nothing for the west and is a serious omission of the Government's responsibility to the west.”

“A new tunnel linking Ballarat Road to the Eastern Freeway was the centre-piece of the Institute for Logistics and Supply Chain Management’s submission to the Eddington Commission on the East-West Link Needs Assessment.”

“I urge the Victorian Government to look further into the future and consider what our proposal will bring to the entire inner west. It is not a matter of only the tunnel, but the overall economic impact that such connection will have.”

Dr Pieter Nagel is available for interview. Mobile: 0412 505 849

Media Contact: Andy Gash, Snr. Media Officer
Marketing and Communications Department, Victoria University
Ph: (03) 9919 4950; mobile: 0411 255 900.