North East Link route yet to be decided

Public submissions for Melbourne's 'missing link' freeway have closed, as the task begins to decide the best route for the road, the North East Link Authority says.

A project of this scale will "inevitably have winners and losers" and it is tricky to decide the best option for the route as there were no land reserves available like during the construction of the East Link, the authority said.

Four possible corridors for the road were revealed in August, although one option - which is 40km long with an estimated $23 billion price tag - is considered less favourable, authority chief executive Duncan Elliott told ABC Radio.