Motorway management company Transurban will build, toll and operate the West Gate Tunnel Project until 2045, to be partly funded through a 10-year extension of the CityLink concession, which the firm signed with the government in 2014.
Transurban announced plans to raise $1.9bn to help fund the West Gate Tunnel Project, at an offer price of $11.40 per new security in a three for 37 entitlement offer.
The firm will partner with a joint venture of CPB Contractors and John Holland to deliver the project, for which construction works, with an estimated value of $6.7bn, will start in January 2018.
The toll bridge will consist of two additional lanes in each direction on the West Gate Freeway between the M80 Ring Road and Williamstown Road, ramps between West Gate Freeway and Hyde Street, a new tunnel under Yarraville connecting the West Gate Freeway with the Maribyrnong River, a new bridge over the Maribyrnong River joining an elevated freeway above Footscray Road with connections to the Port of Melbourne at MacKenzie Road and Appleton Dock Road, plus new cycling and walking paths and open space.
Transurban said the toll bridge would be open to traffic in 2022. Legislation to operate the new road tunnel, and amendments to the CityLink concession deed, will be introduced into Parliament before the road is complete.