Among the list is a road linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, mirroring the controversial East West Link. The document is an exhibit of the amended CityLink Concession Deed, which is a key part of the government's deal with Transurban, the toll operator building the new tunnel. Under the new terms of the amended concession, Transurban would forgo an arrangement that saw it compensated for lost revenue resulting from new transport projects that diverted traffic off CityLink. The purpose of the new list is to specify which projects Transurban can no longer claim compensation for. When asked how the road linking the CityLink and the Eastern Freeway differed from the East West Link, a government spokeswoman said "the list of assumed traffic network enhancements is not a list of government committed projects".

Yet some of projects listed have already been committed to, including the $11 billion Melbourne Metro Tunnel, the $16.5 billion North East Link and the $1.3 billion CityLink/Tullamarine Widening Project. Many other projects listed are already being planned, including the Outer Melbourne Ring Road, the E6 corridor and the airport rail link. The Coalition and the Greens have seized on the transport project pipeline, claiming it was evidence that Labor believed the East West Link, which the Premier famously dubbed a "dog of a project", would need to be revived. Opposition spokesman for public transport David Davis said the document "makes it clear even the Andrews government now concedes that the East West Link will have to be built". Greens' transport spokesman Sam Hibbins​​ went as far as accusing the government of harbouring a "secret plan to bring back the East West Link".

"Why are they putting the East West Link in the CityLink Concession Deed if they are not planning on building it?" Melbourne University's lecturer in transport planning, Dr John Stone, said the inclusion of only two public transport projects in the document, which outlined 12 new roads, 13 road widening or duplication projects, a series of new freeway ramps, proved that Melbourne was being locked into a future of car dependency. "For many, it's already the case. They are either stuck in congestion with no public transport alternative, or stuck living on busy streets dealing with noise, danger and dirty air." Jago Dodson, RMIT's Centre for Urban Research director, said he was appalled that a transport pipeline for Victoria was created and released without proper consultation. "If strategic transport planning is being conducted in Victoria via schedules appended to contracts with private operators, rather than via the measured and consultative statutory processes expected by the Transport Integration Act, then it suggests there is a gross failure of government occurring in the transport sphere," Professor Dodson said.

The West Gate Tunnel, which has blown out from $5.5 billion, will widen the West Gate Freeway to 12 lanes, build a new tunnel under Yarraville and remove 9000 trucks a day off local roads in the inner west. The amended concession will extend CityLink tolling by 10 years, to 2045. Infrastructure Victoria said the East West Link toll road would be needed "in the latter part of the 15-30 year period".