Contractors have begun tunnelling for the second stage of the WestConnex motorway project in Sydney's inner west, leading Roads Minister Duncan Gay to declare the government was "well on our way to fixing" pinch-points for motorists in the city.
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Mr Gay and Premier Mike Baird watched on as an excavator began drilling the nine-kilometre twin tunnels that will run almost in parallel to the existing M5 East once completed by 2020.
"We all know what happens on the M5 on a daily basis ... well, relief is on the way," Mr Baird said on Wednesday.
While opponents fear the project will funnel more traffic onto streets in inner-city suburbs, Mr Gay said congestion would only worsen on key routes such as King Street in Newtown if WestConnex did not proceed.
"If you think King Street in Newtown isn't working now, in 20 years' time, if we don't do something, if we don't put the M5 underneath to siphon the buses, the heavy vehicles, the rat runners out of these communities, it will only get worse," he said.
"What we're doing is building infrastructure to fix the congestion. Without this infrastructure it would be horrendous."
The site for the start of the twin tunnels is located at the City of Sydney Council's disused Alexandria landfill site, where Mr Gay said contractors had cleared about 140,000 tonnes of asbestos as part of the preparations for construction.
