New South Wales Labor would pause plans for Australia's longest road tunnel, diverting the money to regional and Western Sydney roads if it won the state election.
The controversial Great Western Highway upgrade, linking Sydney to western NSW, was proposed by the Nationals Party and announced during the 2019 election campaign.
No funding has been allocated to the most important element, an 11-kilometre tunnel from Blackheath to Little Hartley.
The shadow roads minister John Graham said the project cost from Katoomba to Lithgow has blown out to approximately $19 billion, and an estimate of $1 billion per kilometre for the tunnel.
"There are serious questions about the government funding for the project," Mr Graham said.
"The only way I can see they'll be able to pay for that is to sell Essential Energy and Sydney Water," Mr Graham said.
"We will not do that."
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has previously ruled out privatisation of those assets.
The business case for the tunnel remains to be seen and Regional Roads and Transport Minister Sam Farraway today refused to put a price tag on the underground section.
Opposition leader Chris Minns announced the tunnel project would be paused for two years while they consult with the community.
"We are not convinced that the NSW government has properly completed its planning for this project," Mr Minns said.
Labor would instead reallocate $1.1 billion from it and money from other projects to spend on local roads across western Sydney and regional NSW, he said.
Works on either side of the underground section are set to begin before this month's state election.
Funding and planning questions
That is despite the federal Labor government putting its $2 billion dollar share on hold for two years until more planning has been done.
The shadow minister for roads John Graham said a two-year funding pause on the project would allow serious issues to be resolved.
"There's a number of question marks over the way this project has been driven through - a lack of a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement, heightened secrecy around consultation," Mr Graham said.
The federal environment department yesterday declared it would make the final decision on whether the tunnel was approved because of potential impacts on the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area and threatened species and communities.
Mr Farraway told the ABC the tunnel was "nationally significant"
"If we're going to build highway duplication on the east and west section ... we have to be able to connect that in the middle," Mr Farraway said.
Infrastructure Australia last year found the upgrades would have a negative economic cost to society of $579.5 million.
It warned the benefits of upgrades on either side of the tunnel would not be seen without the underground section.
The Labor government said it would not tear up about $400 million contracts which have been signed.
Locals divided
Michael Paag, from the Blackheath Alliance, lives near a well-known highway pinch point at Mount Victoria.
"We have the Hume, four lanes to Melbourne, we have the Pacific, four-lane dual carriageway to Brisbane and what does the Central West get? A convict-built crumbling road at Victoria Pass," he said.
Mr Paag said Labor's decision was a "terrible short-sighted" one.
He warned there was no way of upgrading the deteriorating road without tunnelling underneath.
"We're facing years of uncertainty, we're facing years of what's going to happen with our homes, what's going to happen with our businesses," he said.
Stephen Caswell, from the Medlow Bath Action group, said the move would allow more time for planning.
"It'll give it a pause to have the project done properly," Mr Caswell said.
He said the state government and Transport for NSW had avoided doing a whole-of-project environmental impact statement.
"There's been no independent scrutiny," he said.
Ron Finemore owns a freight business based at Orange which he estimates is one of the biggest users of the highway.
He described Labor's decision as disappointing, and said both country and city people would miss out on the benefits if it was not upgraded.
"This link should have been been built 50 years ago, but it hasn't been," he said.
"The big issue across the Blue Mountains is the safety," Mr Finemore said.
