An estimated 44,000 vehicles a day – including 2000 trucks – will by next year use a new bridge over the Yarra River between Kew and Alphington.

Work on a new, six-lane bridge to tackle congestion in the notorious choke-point has begun, and on Wednesday morning Premier Daniel Andrews and Roads Minister Luke Donnellan went to Kew to take a look.

The $110 million project has been promised for many years, and Mr Andrews said it would finally be delivered by next year.

The existing, one-lane-each-way, heritage-listed bridge – built 127 years ago for the Outer Circle Railway Line – will become a cycling and walking path.

The newer, much larger bridge is being built next to homes in Alphington, despite there being a vacant building site on the other side of the Chandler Highway that it could go through.

Residents in the existing housing who will have a wider road brought closer to their homes have campaigned against the bridge but their pleas have failed to persuade the government.

"I know not everybody is happy," Mr Andrews said, "but this is the route that we have chosen".

"This is the best engineering solution.

"If you left it the way it was that was no answer. Traffic was growing each year."

Duplicating the river crossing has been put in the too-hard basket by successive governments, despite it appearing for a decade on the RACV's list of worst blockages on Melbourne's road network.

In 2013, then-roads minister Terry Mulder said the previous Labor government had "shoved" initial options to duplicate the bridge "into a dark drawer somewhere".  

"We have plucked it back out and are currently investigating those options," Mr Mulder told Parliament.

Soon after, the Napthine government attempted to ram through its plan for the East West Link tollroad – ultimately costing Victorians about $1 billion for nothing to be built after Labor cancelled the project.

It did nothing on the Chandler Highway bridge.

On Wednesday the Opposition said the new bridge over the Chandler Highway was "a sensible move" but renewed its attack on Mr Andrews for not building the East West Link.

"The Eastern Freeway is a congestion calamity," said Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

"Funnelling more cars onto it without building the East West Link will make this problem even bigger."

But Mr Andrews said the East West Link did not stack up, which was why it was dumped when Labor came to office.

Mr Andrews added that his government would take a proposed route for another tollroad, the North East Link, to next year's election.

The government says the new bridge between Kew and Alphington will save drivers "as much as 20 minutes during their commute" when it opens next year.