Victorian taxpayers are facing hundreds of millions of dollars of risks from the east-west road project, including a promise to foot the bill if the project is hampered by industrial action linked to government policy.

In an extraordinarily generous arrangements for the private sector, the government is also offering to pick up the tab if toll revenue turns out to be lower than anticipated, if interest costs on debt are higher than predicted, or if construction is delayed by events that ''prevent construction milestones being met''.

Expression-of-interest documents for the project, costing between $6 billion and $8 billion, reveal the government - and ultimately taxpayers - will bear at least some risk for every possible contingency outlined under the public-private partnership arrangements.

An industry insider with a long history of involvement in public-private partnership said the risk-sharing arrangements with the private sector were heavily stacked against taxpayers in favour of the private sector in a high-stakes attempt to attract bidders.