Victorian desal plant and east-west link disasters are off the rails, by Kenneth Davidson, The Age November 25, 2013

The key fact is that the people of Victoria will pay $11.25 billion for a traffic jam being shifted into the middle of a hitherto magnificent park – 

Secrecy in public policy-making involves the corruption of proper process. Victorians would be horrified if they knew more about the costs of the water desalination contract and the disaster involved in the (apparently bipartisan) determination to enter an equally disastrous contract to build the east-west road link.

Here are some things we do know.

Unless the major political parties come to their senses, Victorians, either as taxpayers or water users and motorists, will be paying a billion dollars a year for two to three decades for a desalination plant from which we are unlikely to draw water, and for a road link that will shift the peak-hour traffic jam at Hoddle Street to a new traffic jam at Royal Park.

The architects of the east-west link have decided in their wisdom to increase the number of lanes each way from two to three. And therefore, the Eastern Freeway ”funnel” into the tunnel will have its lanes increased from two to three. Continue Reading…