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West Gate Tunnel Officially Opens
The tunnel opening includes truck bans on six local roads and free weekend travel in January as a thank-you for motorists after years of construction disruptions.
- On Sunday, the West Gate Tunnel officially opened, marking progress in western suburbs travel after early Transurban trips and vintage and classic car events on Saturday.
- Originally promised at $500 million, the project swelled to $10.2 billion and is three years late amid contaminated soil removals now borne by taxpayers.
- Toll rules mean drivers pay $10 t to use the tunnel to the airport, with extra charges of $6.54 for cars and $10.47 for utes and vans on weekdays from 7am to 9am, and Linkt will be offline until 6pm Sunday.
- A truck ban will come into effect on six local roads in the inner west, with authorities educating first before enforcing $680 fines; government figures say the tunnel will remove 9000 trucks and cut travel times by 15-20 minutes.
- The EPA signed off on ventilation stacks, but an engineering report prompted calls for an investigation, with mitigation measures including planting half-a-million trees and monitoring at Transurban's Footscray control centre with almost 900 cameras.
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West Gate Tunnel to open | Maribyrnong & Hobsons Bay
Almost 10 years to the day since it was first approved, the West Gate Tunnel will finally open to traffic this weekend. On 8 December 2025, the state government gave the go ahead to the project, then known as the Western Distributor, which had originally been proposed by toll road operator Transurban. On Sunday 14 [...]
Coverage Details
Total News Sources11
Leaning Left3Leaning Right3Center1Last UpdatedBias Distribution43% Left, 43% Right
Bias Distribution
- 43% of the sources lean Left, 43% of the sources lean Right
43% Right
L 43%
14%
R 43%
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