$350m spent buying land, a call for urgency, but no sign of Melbourne's mega-road
Documents, seen by The Age, show the government was advised during the pandemic that the timeline for completing the $31 billion project's first stage should be pulled forward by at least five years to 2031.
The Outer Metropolitan Ring is intended to one day stretch in an arc around the city's west and north, linking the Princes Freeway in Little River to the M80 in Thomastown.
Up to eight lanes wide, with a four-track freight rail line in its median, it would be one of the costliest infrastructure undertakings in Australian history, carving through at least 602 properties on Melbourne's fringe and reshaping the city's development trajectory.
The documents detail how the state had already spent $350 million compensating landowners along the corridor, with government planners warning total payouts could exceed $2.7 billion.
And while the corridor has existed on planning maps since 2009, and there is no commitment to delivering it yet in the budget, government correspondence seen by The Age shows a leap forward in its recommended delivery timeline.
The documents show the government was urged to complete the first stage — previously expected in the mid-2030s — by 2031. The entire project is expected to be completed by 2046. Planners in the documents cite strong population growth in Melbourne's north and west as reasons to accelerate building the road.
In a Supreme Court case late last month, which shows the scale of the financial and legal battles potentially associated with the project, a Manor Lakes landowner is suing the state for $31 million in compensation for what he says is lost value after part of his property was reserved for the corridor.
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