The NSW government has cracked down on the operators of Sydney's M5 East tunnel after a second shutdown in three months caused massive delays for motorists.
Thousands of motorists were caught in a traffic gridlock at around 9am Monday, caused by a computer glitch in the M5 East tunnel.
The tunnel was closed for almost three hours, leading to massive delays in both directions. The closure followed an five-hour shut down, prompted by another computer glitch on June 25.
This afternoon an angry Roads Minister Michael Daley hauled in the CEO of Belfinger+Berger, the company which runs the troubled motorway, for crisis talks.
"I've been instructed not to say I'm shitty ... but I am," Mr Daley told Fairfax Radio.
Earlier today Mr Daley was threatening to strip the company of its contract.
"My message to the CEO and the motorway company on behalf of the motorists is a very clear one: If you can't run this motorway properly, we'll find someone we can," he told reporters.
But after emerging from discussions he said that wouldn't be the case.
However he has ordered several changes, ordering that an engineer from the software company has to be on site 24 hours a day.
There will also be an independent check of the tunnel's safety systems and further backup operations will be implemented in the coming weeks.
The RTA has pledged to work with Belfinger+Berger to make the tunnel state-of-the-art.
The NSW government had already ordered an audit of the operating system following the June closure, after it emerged a backup system which should have kicked in also failed.
The audit has now been completed, but RTA chief Les Wielinga today would not be drawn on its contents until he'd had a chance to assess its findings properly.
But Mr Wielinga said the RTA had endured a "difficult" relationship with the tunnel operators in recent times.
"We've been concerned with some of the reliability in the motorway," Mr Wielinga said.
"We want them to fix it. We want them to be fair dinkum about it."
The opposition said the state government must take blame for this morning's disruptions, saying it had drawn up the contract.