A three-kilometre twin tunnel will be built beneath Yarraville in Melbourne's inner west as Premier Daniel Andrews moves to avoid a community backlash over his flagship road project.

After months of considering different designs, the state government is set to unveil its preferred tunnel option for the Western Distributor, a $5.5 billion project that aims to create an alternative river crossing to the West Gate Bridge, reduce truck congestion and cut travel times to the CBD by 20 minutes.

Instead of building a shorter tunnel – which residents feared would be too close to houses and result in a loss of open space near Stony Creek – the chosen option includes a longer four-lane tunnel under Yarraville, starting at the West Gate Freeway and coming to the surface at industrial land near the Maribyrnong River.

New on-and-off ramps for trucks will also connect the West Gate Freeway with Hyde Street in Yarraville, but the final design will not contain any flyovers and will be built as close as possible to the existing West Gate Freeway – in line with what the community wanted.