Clayton Utz advises on the Eddington Report

By Brad Vann and Andrew Burnett.

Key Points:
The report’s recommendations will form the blueprint for the Victorian Government’s future infrastructure investments

The release of the East West Link Needs Assessment Report (the Eddington Report) heralds a new era in the planning of transportation in Victoria and addresses future infrastructure requirements for the productivity of the Victorian economy as well as the needs of all transport users.

The report received considerable media attention and its recommendations will form the blueprint for the Victorian Government’s future infrastructure investments. A team led by Melbourne managing partner Brad Vann and construction and major projects partners Marko Misko and Doug Jones advised on the report providing legal, strategic and commercial input into the study.

Background

In 2006 the Victoria Government announced a commitment to spend $10.5 billion on Victoria’s transport infrastructure in the Meeting Our Transport Challenges policy. The Government also released estimates indicating that the state’s population will reach 6.2 million by 2020 and Melbourne will overtake Sydney as Australia’s largest city in 20 years. Against this background, the Eddington Report was commissioned by the Government to address future public transport and road network capacity needs.

Sir Rod Eddington, an Australian businessman and engineer, was engaged to investigate "the best transport solutions for connecting Melbourne’s eastern and western suburbs." Sir Rod was Chief Executive Officer of British Airways from 2000 to 2005 and previously held executive roles at Ansett Australia and Cathay Pacific. Sir Rod’s service to the aviation industry was recognised when he received a British Knighthood in 2005. He was also commissioned by the UK Government to investigate the links between transport and the UK’s economic productivity, growth and stability and, as such, his experience and expertise meant he was considered by the Victorian Government as the best candidate for producing the report.

Key recommendations

The report makes two major infrastructure recommendations:

• the construction of a 17 kilometre rail tunnel linking Melbourne’s western and south-eastern suburbs; and
• the construction of an 18 kilometre cross city road corridor to provide an alternative route to the West Gate Bridge.

These two recommendations are considered most important given that the Victorian rail network will reach capacity within the next decade and the Melbourne road network is highly vulnerable due to the overdependence on the West Gate Bridge as a link to the western suburbs. In particular, traffic congestion is already identified as negatively impacting the overall efficiency of the road network, acting as a constraint on the growth of the Victorian economy.

The report also recommends a number of other initiatives including:

• construction of the Tarneit rail link between Werribee and Deer Park, linking the lines to Ballarat and Geelong and separating V-Line trains from the metropolitan rail network;
• measures to remove heavy freight traffic from inner-city suburbs;
• rapid, high quality bus services to Doncaster and a bus-rail interchange at Victoria Park;
• measures to allow priority lanes for trams and buses;
• re-evaluation of the Victorian Government’s aim to move 30 percent of Victorian ports freight by rail by 2010, as the goal was found to be unachievable;
• taking action to increase the share of freight by rail;
• the introduction of measures to bring Australia into line with European carbon dioxide emission standards;
• improved bicycle lanes and cross city bicycle connections; and
• evaluation of road tolling, congestion charges and other levies.

The report estimates the cost of the main initiatives will be $9 billion for the East West road connection and $8.5 billion for the rail network improvements. The report considers the initiatives could be funded by a mix of state, federal and private sector funding through Public Private Partnerships.

The Victorian Government will consider all comments and release its response to the report by the end of the year.

Role of Clayton Utz

The Clayton Utz team utilised their experience with major transport related projects to advise on the legal and regulatory environment, international infrastructure developments, approaches to business case development and project structuring, and to provide strategic advice on project concept design, planning and delivery methodology.

Brad Vann said that the role was an excellent example of the ability of Clayton Utz to leverage its considerable expertise and experience in acting for Government around Australia on major road, rail and other transport projects to provide high level legal commercial input.

"The advice we gave was not purely legal advice but involved strategic input from a lawyer’s perspective as part of a hand-selected multi-disciplinary consultant team which involved professionals such as traffic engineers, financial advisers, environmental consultants and traffic modellers."

The Clayton Utz team continues to play a major role in the Victorian Government’s transport plan – Meeting Our Transport Challenges – having recently advised on Australia’s newest tollway, EastLink, which connects Victoria’s Monash, Eastern and Frankston Freeways.

For further information, please contact Brad Vann.