The Government of Victoria in Australia has confirmed the missing link route on the North East Link, which is said to be the largest transport project in the Melbourne’s freeway network.

Construction of North East Link will begin on the Eastern Freeway at Springvale Road and the capacity of the freeway will be increased with the addition of six extra dedicated lanes to eliminate some of Eastern Melbourne’s traffic bottlenecks.

The expanded freeway will be linked to the new six-lane tunnel on the west at Bulleen with local underground connections at Banksia St and Manningham Road.

The tunnel road, which spans five kilometres, will then travel deep beneath the Yarra River, protecting environmentally sensitive parkland and residential areas.

North East Link will have a local connection at the Lower Plenty Road and then run north alongside the existing Greensborough Highway, which will stay open for local traffic.

“While the business case is yet to be finalised, early cost estimates of this project range up to A$16.5bn ($12.5bn) and create around 10,000 Victorian jobs.”

With the construction of the North East Link, the travel times between Melbourne’s north and south is expected to come down by nearly 30 minutes in each direction, as well as reduce travel time for people travelling to Melbourne Airport from the south and east.

The government anticipates that traffic congestion on the local roads in the north-eastern suburbs will also be reduced, with nearly 15,000 trucks taken off local streets a day, and more than 9,000 vehicles taken off hotspots like Rosanna Road.

While the business case is yet to be finalised, early cost estimates of this project range up to A$16.5bn ($12.5bn) and create around 10,000 Victorian jobs.

The government is yet to finalise the cost estimates and the procurement.

Planning approval processes will begin next year, while construction is expected to begin in 2020.