An artist's impression of the Footscray Road elevated freeway section of the West Gate Tunnel. Credit:Victorian government Barrister Nick Tweedie, SC, who is acting for the city council, told the planning experts that the council was not completely opposed to the Transurban and state government project, and accepted it had some benefits. But he said the project went against many years of work by both the council and the state government to reduce traffic into the city centre. For more than a decade, Melbourne City Council and the state government had been "pursuing both strategic policies and a whole range of mechanisms which are designed to reduce the number of private cars coming into ... inner Melbourne". Those policies had been successful, Mr Tweedie said.

"A direct freeway connection to the central city is a fundamental betrayal of this long-held strategic vision and all the work that has been invested in the last decade." The council also attacked the 10,000-page Environmental Effects Statement, produced in 89 separate reports by the government and Transurban to explain why the road was needed. This document, Mr Tweedie said, was "not a proper analysis" of the implications of the project. "It's essentially a sales brochure," he said. "It's a work of advocacy designed to sell a particular product and that product is the Transurban vision of how to meet the transport needs of this state and this metropolis."

The council argues that the proposed toll road also trashes the state government's long-term plan for E-gate – a large chunk of land on the city's doorsteps for years used as rail yards but planned to be transformed for housing. "The city connection does more than just ruin decades of traffic management," Mr Tweedie said. "It's also going to ruin E-gate and the urban renewal areas of North Melbourne. It is going to fundamentally compromise the ability to develop those areas to their full potential." The city council, however, agreed that a proposed widening of Wurundjeri Way to be completed as part of the project had merit. Appearing for the council, traffic expert Stephen Hunt from planners Ratio said the proposed widening was "considered warranted and desirable".

A drawing of the proposed Footscray Road elevated tollway with the existing road beneath. But the council has criticised the plan to also build a new elevated six-lane motorway above Footscray Road, which would result in there being 18 lanes of roadway when it was added to the existing 12-lane road. Mr Hunt said this over-supply of road space would lead to "induced demand" – the phenomenon of improved roads attracting more cars rather than solving congestion – on Footscray Road. Under cross-examination, Mr Hunt conceded that the extra 9000 cars a day that the West Gate Tunnel was projected to put on roads in North and West Melbourne was manageable.

Loading The West Gate Tunnel will provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, linking traffic between the West Gate Freeway, CityLink and the CBD via a new tunnel beneath Yarraville and a bridge over the Maribyrnong River. Hearings into the planned toll road continue until the middle of next month. Moonee Ponds Creek between Dynon and Footscray roads – the location for a Transurban flyover. Picture by Joe Armao. Credit:Joe Armao