Railways in Melbourne
In February 2015, the State Government established the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority to oversee planning for new twin 9-kilometre rail tunnels through the central city between South Kensington station and South Yarra. The new Metro Tunnel will have five new underground stations and connect the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines with the Sunbury line, creating a new route through the CBD as an alternative to the City Loop. New underground stations will be created at Arden, Parkville, Domain and two new CBD stations, State Library and Town Hall. Enabling works were underway by 2016 and major construction work on the tunnel and stations began in 2017.The project has an estimated cost of $11 billion and is scheduled to be complete by 2025.
Victoria Park Tunnel
The tunnel, to initially cost approximately NZ$440 million (2009 estimate), later corrected down to $340 million, is a northbound-traffic carrying structure only, entering the ground in the area of the existing 'Birdcage' heritage pub (which will be relocated to allow the tunnel portal to be built in the area), and reemerges to the northwest of the park where it feeds into additional lanes provided alongside the St Marys Bay stretch of the motorway. The tunnel provides three lanes of traffic, and is 440 m long. Construction was originally to last four years, starting in January 2010, after the new National government fast-tracked further state highways investment.