Melbourne's major freeways move millions of people and important goods every day and the West Gate Freeway is one of the busiest, moving more than 200,000 vehicles a day.

The West Gate Bridge is at capacity and a single incident can bring the traffic network to a standstill. In addition, trucks in the west have no alternative but to use local roads to get to the port.

The West Gate Tunnel Project will ease congestion on the West Gate Freeway and West Gate Bridge, and reduce the number of trucks on residential streets.