Now, in the wake of a disastrous result for the Coalition at least in part because of the road, he maintains he is determined to see the East West Link finished - no matter what.

The incoming Labor government is adamant it doesn't want the road.

In other words, Victoria has an extraordinary situation where the Commonwealth is insisting on a project that the state government simply does not want.

On Sunday, Andrews could not have been clearer: "The road is not going to be built and the contract is not worth the paper it's written on," he told the ABC.

Abbott isn't about to drive the bulldozers up to Clifton Hill's Alexandra Parade and start building the road himself.