The state and federal governments face their first test of their capacity to raise private funding to support the WestConnex motorway, opening talks with bankers and investors in the next couple of weeks.
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The first stages of the motorway - a widened M4 and M4 East tunnels from Concord to Haberfield - are largely being paid for by taxpayers.
But the government hopes to raise about $1.5 billion off private investors to help fund the second stage of the motorway - new M5 East tunnels from Beverly Hills to St Peters.
To attract these investors, the government will sell the right to charge tolls on existing M5 East motorway tunnels, which opened without a toll in 2011, as well as the new M5 East tunnels to run along the same corridor.
"The M5 East is operating over capacity with traffic currently above 100,000 cars per day," said Dennis Cliche, chief executive of the Sydney Motorway Corporation.
"This lowers traffic risk significantly and makes the project very attractive for private financiers," said Mr Cliche.
The funding plan for the overall WestConnex motorway, slated to cost about $14.5 billion, involves selling off earlier sections of the motorway to pay for later sections.
For instance, the first stages - the widened M4 and M4 East tunnels - will cost about $4.4 billion in 2015 dollars. A $1.5 billion contribution from the federal government, as well as $1.8 billion from the state government, forms the initial outlay.
But the Sydney Motorway Corporation will raise the rest of the funding from toll revenues and from selling the right to toll the existing M4 motorway when the widened section opens in 2017.
The M5 East section of the motorway is expected to cost slightly more than $4.4 billion.
The project was accelerated by a year when the Abbott government agreed to provide a $2 billion loan for the motorway, meaning construction should start on this section of motorway next year and be finished by the end of 2019.
The funding strategy for the 33 kilometre WestConnex project differs from previous toll-roads built in Sydney. In the past, governments attempted to raise private money for the roads before they were built, fueling the risk that bidders on toll-roads would overestimate their traffic numbers.
Overall, the government hopes to raise 75 per cent of the funding needed for the motorway from the private sector.
