The Courier: East-West Link project will be dud either way By Hans Paas Oct. 3, 2014
Voters in central Victoria are being doubly dudded by the decision of the state government to sign the East-West Link contracts.
In addition to seeing upwards of $8 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money frittered away on a tunnel we don’t need and that won’t do anything to address the state’s transport needs, we are being exposed to massive costs if the project implodes.
Having come to office promising public transport upgrades, the lack of a business case and concentration of funding on a single option will leave us all poorer and, when in Melbourne, still stuck in a traffic jam.
Right around the world such projects are now discredited as it takes but two to four years for traffic volumes to return to pre-road project volumes.
By signing the contracts just before the election, voters are being held to ransom by a desperate government that knows its days are numbered.
Central Victorians will be paying for this blunder for years ahead regardless of whether the project goes ahead.
