An extra $2 billion in federal funding will be injected into fast-tracking Sydney’s Westconnex motorway project as part of an unprecedented ­infrastructure package in next week’s budget.

The Daily Telegraph has learnt Prime Minister Tony Abbott has approved a $2 billion loan to the NSW Government to bring forward the motorway’s stage 2 construction start date to as early as the beginning of next year.

The low-interest loan, the first of its kind to fund infrastructure, would be leveraged against the tolls charged when the road opens.

It will bring total federal funding for the 33km project to $3.5 billion and expedite completion by two years to 2019 by allowing work to begin on the M4 and M5 at the same time.

Stage one involves extending the M4 from Strathfield, where it ends now, to a stage 3 tunnel link to the airport. Stage two, with the funds from the loan, will widen the M5 East to two, four-lane expressways between King Georges Rd, Beverly Hills, and Bexley Rd, with a new 6km tunnel from St Peters to join the widened M5 East surface and a double, three-lane expressway to St Peters and Sydney Airport.

It will fund duplication of the M5 East twin tunnels used by 100,000 motorists a day.

When completed, the Westconnex will cut travel times between Parramatta and Sydney Airport by up to 40 minutes.

It will also:

• Halve bus travel times between the inner west and CBD;
  
• Generate 10,000 jobs;
  
• Bypass 52 sets of lights;
  
• Remove 3000 trucks a day from Parramatta Rd and;
  
• Deliver more than $20 billion in economic benefits.
  

Mr Abbott said yesterday: “Everything in this Budget is about building a stronger economy so there are a whole range of changes.

“Infrastructure is what enables us to get to work, to get home and the more time we spend stuck in traffic jams, the less time we are productively at work or the less time we’re spending with our families.”

The loan will begin to be drawn down between July 1 next year and December 31, 2018. It will be repaid at a lower interest rate closer to the government bond rate.

Christelle Van Schellebeeck, 20, drives to work from Rooty Hill to Haberfield on the M4 and Parramatta Rd.

She said she would be happy to see the upgrade fast-tracked. “It would mean less petrol and it would be faster to get to work,” she said.

Source: The Daily Telegraphy exclusive by Simon Denson. Original article.