A significant milestone has been reached on a major Melbourne road project.

In its latest announcement, the Victorian Government says that the entire road surface has been completed on a series of new connections that will link the West Gate Tunnel to the city.

On Sunday, Premier Jacinta Allan and Minister for Transport Infrastructure Danny Pearson joined project workers for the first car ride to the project’s highest point – a 27-metre-high ramp connecting CityLink to the new elevated road above Footscray Road.

This follows the recent completion of the final concrete road surface of the bridges and elevated roads along the project that will take drivers from the West Gate Tunnel to West Melbourne, Docklands and the city.

Set to open by the end of next year, the $10 billion West Gate Tunnel will connect the West Gate Freeway in Melbourne’s west to the Port of Melbourne and CityLink.

For residents and visitors coming to the city from Melbourne’s west, the new road will deliver an alternative to the currently clogged West Gate Bridge and will deliver a much needed second crossing of the Yarra River.

All up, the new road will remove around 9,000 trucks per day off local roads. It will also create 14km of new and upgraded walking and cycling paths, and close to nine hectares of new parks and wetlands.

The project is a partnership between the Victorian Government and Transurban.

It is being constructed by construction contractors CPB Contractors and John Holland (CPBJH JV).

However, the project has not been without its problems.

Design errors have led to delays and significant cost blowouts on the project, which is already three years late and $4 billion over budget.

To build the elevated road and other city connections that stretch from Footscray to Docklands, crews have installed 11.6km of road deck, more than 4,000 barriers along the bridges and more than 22.5km of barrier rail.

During construction, 278 separate spans of road were installed to build this vital series of connections, with the longest being about 100m.

Remaining works on the city connections will include the installation of drainage, sign gantries, electrical and safety systems including the intelligent traffic management system (ITS), along with the final layer of asphalting.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has welcomed the latest progress.

“We said we would build the West Gate Tunnel and that’s exactly what we’re doing – creating new city connections that link the twin tunnels under Yarraville to the CBD, and a vital second river crossing that will cut travel times between Melbourne’s west and the city.”