Herald Sun: Secret papers reveal details of $6.8 billion East West Link. 15 December 2014

THREE major infrastructure projects were added to the East West Link stage one project at the last minute to boost the case for the road, secret documents reveal.

The Andrews Government today released about 9000 pages of documents detailing the potential costs and benefits of the $6.8 billion link between the Eastern Freeway and CityLink.

The documents include two business cases, one published in March 2013 and presented to the Napthine cabinet in April and an updated case from June 2013, which was exclusively obtained by the Herald Sun yesterday.

The cost-benefit analysis in the initial case estimates the link would produce a return of 45c for every dollar spent, the “cabinet in confidence’’ papers reveal.

Even including wider economic benefits, the original project would only produce 84c worth of value for every dollar spent, according to the reports.

But the updated case, produced just two months later, asserts the project, taking into account wider benefits, would deliver $1.40 back for each dollar invested. Continue Reading…