While Prime Minister Tony Abbott has recently appeared willing to let Victoria not build its contentious East West Link, others within his party are pushing for the big road build to continue.

Jamie Briggs, the Assistant Minister for Infrastructure, says a truck fire that caused chaos on Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge on Friday showed why a second river crossing should be built.

“Premier Andrews' reckless decision to tear up the East West Link contract and to legislate away the legal rights of existing contractors is grinding Victoria to a halt and damaging our reputation,” Briggs said in a statement.

The East West Link is the only project in Victoria that will provide a genuine alternative to the West Gate Bridge, create almost 7000 jobs and get Melbourne traffic moving again.

Briggs pointed to comments by Labor leader Bill Shorten, who once supported a second river crossing.

Mr HSortern stated in a joint submission to Sir Rod Eddington's report in 2008: “Melbourne cannot afford to continue its overreliance on the West Gate Bridge.

“At present, the city's transport network is highly vulnerable to constraints and disruptions on the bridge. There is a need for an alternative to the bridge.”

“It's time Bill Shorten stopped dodging the issue and called on Premier Andrews to abandon his ridiculous plans to cancel the project and get on with delivering for Victorians,” Briggs said.

But Victoria’s Labor government wants to fulfil the need Mr Shorten described by enhancing public transport across the city, to reduce congestion more broadly.

It has pledged to fix the state’s 50 worst level crossings, where trains block traffic and create some incredible delays.

Premier Daniel Andrews hopes there will be some Federal money to help.

“Of the 50 that we've committed to do, we may get some support from the federal government, particularly those that are close to transport corridors that might be considered a road of national importance,” Mr Andrews told radio station 3AW.

“They're not interested necessarily, though, in funding some of the more suburban ones that we've committed to.”