"For some residents this will be very difficult news," Premier Daniel Andrews said at a press conference on Friday morning. The route will cover 26 kilometres in all, and involve five kilometres of tunnels to minimise impacts on parks, schools and residents. The project is to start in 2020. And the Eastern Freeway will be doubled in size as part of the project, with six extra lanes added from Springvale Road. The freeway widening, now a major element of the project, will be done to accommodate the predicted 110,000 extra cars coming off the North East Link daily. A lengthy consultation by the government's North East Link Authority indicated overwhelming support for the project, which also topped Infrastructure Victoria's list of Melbourne's most-needed roads.

But announcement of its unprecedented cost on Friday – $16.5 billion – came as a surprise. The road, first conceived in a 1969 transport plan but never built, was costed by Labor at $6 billion in 2008. In August, Mr Andrews said the road would cost "around $10 billion". After complaints from private schools on Bulleen Road about the toll road's likely impact on them, it will now tunnel underneath sporting fields near the Eastern Freeway interchange. But the Boroondara Tennis Centre in Balwyn North will not be spared, with the toll road to carve through the centre of it. Greensborough's Boyd Street will be among the roads affected by the project. Residents Adrienne and Lawrence Osellame say they are devastated. Ms Osellame spent most of Thursday night crying.

Officials from North East Link Authority knocked on the door of their Boyd Street home about 8pm and handed them a letter. The document notified them that their home of 40 years "may be required for construction" to make way for the new highway. It was a great shock to the couple who raised their four children there. "We were not aware that our house could possibly be one that was going to go," Ms Osellame said. "It's not definite, but we won't know for another six to 18 months."

The couple will now halt the renovations to their kitchen, and new flooring they planned for the house. "We're sort of in limbo. We are devastated, we haven't slept, we have to put everything on hold now, we don't know what to do. We can't sell it." Adrienne and Lawrence Osellame, who learnt on Thursday night that their home will likely be acquired. Credit:Timna Jacks Another Boyd Street resident Tamara, also received a knock on the door on Thursday. Even if her property was not acquired, she said the value of her house would dive. "Who is going to buy our property? I wouldn't."

She said that, beyond her home's financial worth, it had emotional importance. "I have a maple tree that my sister planted. My sister died ... and they are going to dig it up?" She said her whole street was "in tears, nobody slept". Greensborough resident Tamara whose house could be acquired. Credit:Jason South Residents in Rosanna and Yallambie, who live near the corner of the Greensborough Highway and Lower Plenty Road, also received notices of likely acquisition on Thursday night. Jack Liao was told on Friday morning that he would probably lose his property – two acres of land on Bullen Road – if the North East Link goes ahead.

Mr Liao bought the site a decade ago and has built up a successful French-Japanese fusion restaurant, where he is also head chef. He is worried his business will be hit badly if he is forced to relocate. "We worked very hard for this and our customers love it here," he said. "I have no idea what to do – what should we do next?" Mr Liao also owns property five minutes' drive from the restaurant, which he was hoping to sell in December. He has already been told by a real estate agent the property would lose 30 per cent of its value due to its proximity to the tunnel. "We feel very unlucky." Jack Liao's restaurant will make way for the new road. Credit:Jason South

By comparison to the North East Link, the cost of building the original Snowy Mountains hydro scheme was about $5.5 billion in 2013 dollars, NSW government documents released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information show. A new rail tunnel being built under central Melbourne will cost $11 billion. In response to questions about a cost blowout, the Premier said the tunnel, which would the longest tunnel in Melbourne's road network, had driven up the cost. "The costs go up the longer the tunnelling," he said. "Yes, $16.5 billion is a significant investment, but it's one that we simply have to make. It would have been cheaper if we had done it 30 years ago," he said. Opposition treasury spokesman Michael O'Brien said that the price for the road had inflated by billions within months. "You couldn't burn money this fast," Mr O'Brien said. "This is the biggest series of cost-blow outs in Victorian history – and all before a single shovel is in the ground."

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the sheer cost of the project was remarkable, and if spent on public transport could have paid for a second rail tunnel or two new suburban rail lines. Boroondara Council attacked the decision to choose the route, which mayor Jim Parke said would be "a disaster" for residents as it would increase traffic on Bullen and Doncaster roads. "This is not a true orbital ring road connecting the industrial areas of northern suburbs ... through to Dandenong. This option will direct freight and commuter traffic onto inner-city roads," he said. Meanwhile, the trucking industry welcomed the confirmation of the road's location. Victorian Transport Association chief Peter Anderson said it was good the difficult decision of where the road would be built had been made.

The route had "the least social impact in terms of negative effects on the community," Mr Anderson said. Loading Rosanna and Heidelberg have experienced a huge increase in the number of trucks using Rosanna Road as a freight route. Trucks travelling from EastLink and the Eastern Freeway use Rosanna Road as a freight route to the north. The route of North East Link.