Sydney’s Cross City Tunnel has financially failed for the second time in eight years, entering voluntary administration on Friday afternoon.
The decision by its owners to appoint administrators follows the decision of the NSW Office of State Revenue to pursue an unpaid $64 million tax bill.
The Cross City Tunnel is in administration again.Credit: Jim Rice
Motorists will not notice a change because the administrators, David Merryweather and Gregory Hall of PricewaterhouseCoopers, are to maintain the $4.91 one-way toll for the motorway, which is now likely to be put up for sale.
The controversial tunnel from Darling Harbour to Rushcutters Bay opened in 2005 amid predictions by its first owners that it would soon attract 70,000 motorists a day.
But only about 20,000 motorists used the city bypass tunnel in 2005, and it is estimated that fewer than 40,000 a day use it now.
After it went into receivership in 2006, the present owners – Royal Bank of Scotland, EISER Infrastructure Partners and Leighton Contractors – bought it in 2007.
The government insists they should have paid stamp duty on that transaction but last month those owners won a case in the NSW Supreme Court saying they did not need to.
When the Office of State Revenue said…