Motorists will pay tolls in both directions on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Harbour Tunnel under proposals to help cover the $14 billion cost of a 14-kilometre tunnel linking the northern beaches to the city's inner west.
The plans for the new tolls, detailed in cabinet-in-confidence documents, also reveal that motorists will be slugged about $8 (in today's dollars) for a one-way journey by car on the entire length of the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel and Beaches Link.
The analysis assumes tolls will be in place for a 35-year period on the Western Harbour Tunnel from 2023, and the Beaches Link a year later. Charges for trucks will be three times greater than those for cars or light commercial vehicles.
Under the proposals contained in a "Final Business Case", $3 tolls for cars will be placed on northbound trips on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Harbour Tunnel from 2022 to make them the same as those on the proposed Western Harbour Tunnel.
The documents show the new tolls on the Harbour Bridge and Harbour Tunnel will help cross-subsidise the third harbour crossing and the Beaches Link, whose tolls will be insufficient to cover the full cost of building, maintaining and operating them.
Cabinet documents seen by Fairfax Media and the ABC have put the cost of the new tunnels at $14 billion, which compares with $16.8 billion for the 33km WestConnex motorway.
Transport authorities believe tolls are necessary to avoid free northbound trips on the Harbour Bridge and Harbour Tunnel undermining the case for a third crossing. A free alternative would discourage motorists from using a tolled Western Harbour Tunnel.
It has also been proposed that tolls will be placed on southbound journeys of the Eastern Distributor. They would be set at half the cost of the existing charge for a northbound journey of $7.02 – or about $3.50 each way.
The $8 toll for the entire length of the proposed roadway is made up of $3 for the new harbour tunnel between the WestConnex interchange at Rozelle and North Sydney, where it will join the Warringah Freeway, and $5 for the Beaches Link to Balgowlah in Sydney's north.
The tolls planned for the new tunnels will be fixed, unlike the distance-based tolls on WestConnex. While tolls on the Western Harbour Tunnel will rise in line with the consumer price index, those on the Beaches Link will increase every year for the first two decades by 4 per cent or at the rate of inflation, whichever is greater.
In an era of low wage growth, the likelihood of tolls rising at a faster rate than inflation means a greater proportion of Sydney motorists' income will go towards paying charges for using motorways.
The NSW government has been opposed to limiting toll increases on Sydney's growing labyrinth of motorways to the rate of inflation because it believes it could push up the initial price of new roads and make it more difficult to attract private investment.
Charges for cars on some of Sydney's largest motorways such as the M2 are, due to contracts signed with private tolling companies, are growing at twice the present annual inflation rate.
Asked about the proposed new tolls, a spokesman for Roads Minister Melinda Pavey said there was "always speculation around major projects".
"As the Premier said when she announced the project, we have commenced a market sounding process to investigate funding options and delivery approaches. That work is not yet complete," the spokesman said.
"We expect to have a detailed plan by the middle of next year."
Surveys for the government have shown a majority of people to be in favour of the new harbour tunnel and Beaches Link. However, they show northern beaches residents are more sensitive to paying to drive on motorways than those from other parts of Sydney because they have had less exposure to toll roads.
Residents in western Sydney are the biggest users of the city's toll roads.
The Berejiklian government faces growing pressure to fully consult communities about its plans for the Western Harbour Tunnel and the Beaches Link, which will require six exhaust ventilation stacks.
Some of the proposed locations of the ventilation towers, each between 20 and 35 metres high, are close to schools.
The cabinet documents show the government plan was for "stakeholder engagement" from late 2016 to the end of this year to focus on "coordinating activities to support the successful announcement" of the two tunnel projects.
And, in countering opposition from residents and councils. the proposed response was to emphasise that the government was announcing a "fresh approach to community engagement and property acquisition".
Likewise, to allay concerns that property prices will be hit, an "awareness campaign" would be rolled out to show the "bounce in local property values once a major transport infrastructure project becomes operational".
In The Age and Sydney Morning Herald