North East Link’s Cost Inflates to $26 Billion as Massive Blowouts Sting

The new figure is more than double the original estimation of $10 billion when the project was introduced in 2016.

North East Link construction site is seen during a press conference in Melbourne, Australia, on June 6, 2022. AAP Image/Diego Fedele

Victorian taxpayers will need to foot an extra $10 billion (US$6.7 billion) in construction bills for the North East Link highway as the project suffers massive cost blowouts.

On Dec. 15, the Victorian Labor government announced that the cost of the North East Link project, a 10-kilometre-long connection between the Western Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway, would rise to $26 billion.