West Gate truck project expands: Andrews

A plan to get 5000 trucks a day off the West Gate Bridge is being expanded - not blowing out, the Victorian government says.

Labor promised $500 million to build the West Gate distributor and add new lanes to the West Gate Freeway.

But the state government reportedly asked the federal government for $680 million to build the road.

Premier Daniel Andrews says the increased cost reflected a change to the project.

"This is an initial presentation to the Commonwealth about one option where you could expand the scope of the project," Mr Andrews told reporters on Thursday.

Mr Andrews said the original proposal included lane management technology to use service lanes to fit more vehicles.

He said the updated proposal included the option of actually building more lanes.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the plan had always included the new lane option, and Labor had lied about the true cost of the project.

"Labor were very clear going into the election that it wouldn't cost more than $500 million, and now we find them begging the federal government for more money," he said.

The state government submitted a list of infrastructure options to the federal government to spend $3 billion previously set aside for the dumped East West Link road tunnel project.