The cost of the North East Link, a toll road in Melbourne which will join the M80 Ring Road to the Eastern Freeway, has leapt since an estimated cost was first announced in 2008.
The North East Link was included in the Victorian Government's Victorian Transport Plan in 2008, with a cost of 'more than $6 billion'.91
Two changes of government later, the Andrews Government announced its intention to proceed with the project in December 2016, then with an expected cost of $10 billion.92 At this point, a route for the road was yet to be determined.
Costings for four potential routes were released in August 2017, ranging from $7 billion to $23 billion.93
In November 2017, the Government announced that the cheapest of the four routes had been selected, though the expected cost was now $16.5 billion.94 Part of the extra cost related to widening of the Eastern Freeway, necessary to accommodate extra traffic coming off the North East Link.95 However, the project's fundamental purpose remained unchanged: connecting the M80 Ring Road to the Eastern Freeway. In May 2018, a business case was completed, which revised the expected cost down slightly to $15.8 billion.96
____________________________________________________________________________
91. Victorian Government (2008, p. 12). See also Pallas (2008) and Parliament of Victoria (2020, p. 3).
92. Galloway (2016).
93. Lucas and Carey (2017).
94. Andrews (2017).
95. Lucas and Jacks (2017); and Victorian Government (2018a, p. 4).
96. Victorian Government (2018a, p. 7).