The Andrews government was elected on the promise to abandon a mega-road project, East-West Link, even after the contract was signed. It kept its promise. Ever since, it seems, the government has been seeking to atone for that sin against transport planning conventional wisdom by proving to be an even bigger road builder than its predecessor. So another "outer" metropolitan ring road is on the books, the government has announced plans to build the final link in the existing ring road, and a vast "Western Distributor" (now renamed the West Gate Tunnel) is to be built by Transurban.

It is the last of these that is most worrying and poses the most immediate threat to good government and sensible transport policy. The "West Gate Tunnel Project" is an unsolicited bid by a private corporation, Transurban, to feed its profit stream by enlarging, by eleven times, a proposal for a freight distributor road which the government took to the last election as part of its transport policy. This is the "West Gate Distributor" (not to be confused with Transurban's Western Distributor, a four-kilometre, four-lane road connecting the West Gate Freeway to Footscray Road, allowing trucks to bypass residential areas in Melbourne's inner West. It was costed at $680 million and was widely supported by residents in the West.

The Andrews government was elected on the promise to abandon a mega-road project, East-West Link, even after the contract was signed. Credit:Justin McManus

The Transurban West Gate Tunnel (TWGT) is a 14-kilometre, 12-lane road connecting the Princes freeway to Transurban's City Link, tunnelling under Yarraville and bridging the Maribyrnong River and Footscray Road. The estimated cost is $5.27 billion. This private road will serve the interests of a private corporation – the Port of Melbourne – that has already tabled its own demands for new roads. In its enthusiasm to build roads and support business elites, the public interest has been forgotten.

The East-West Link was at least the outcome of analysis led by a distinguished independent expert, Sir Rod Eddington. The analysis turned out to be severely flawed; it was shown to be so through public debate. The TWGT is an opportunistic tollway megaproject that is part of Transurban's plan to grow its business. It is not part of any publicly-debated, comprehensive, multi-modal transport plan for metropolitan Melbourne.