'Unsafe' tunnel likely to be closed in Australia

Sydney's M5 traffic tunnel - which has been dogged with mishaps of late, looks set to be closed again, a report has suggested.

According to a leaked Roads and Traffic Authority report, the tunnel has experienced "major hardware faults" including some within its pollution detection technology, reported news.com.au.

One of the problems is with gas detection, as the report stated "the detection system is unreliable and in need of replacement".

It continued: "Sections of the Cooks River tunnel are now regularly without gas detection as per design specifications."

A total of 11 failures in these systems have been reported within the last six months, the summary also claims.

The M5 traffic tunnel is utilised by 100,000 motorists a day, spans four kilometres and is part of the ten-kilometre long M5 east freeway.

Roads minister Michael Daily said if any more hitches occur with the tunnel, he would "tear up" the current contract and "get someone else in to run it", following technical problems this week which saw the tunnel close for three hours.