Saddled with a $2billion debt before it collected its first toll, the group has attracted lower traffic numbers than expected and its share price has plummeted from nearly $1 in August to 31cents as of last Wednesday.

For its half-year report in December, the group announced a $92.6million loss.

But acting chief executive Peter Bentley, who spoke to the Journal last week, said $25million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation showed the road was making money. "Because these projects start with a high debt level, you have high financial costs. As you go along, the costs become less and less. It's an improving picture every month. What's more relevant is when do we become cash-flow positive. We expect that to happen in the first half of next calendar year."

As for the share price plunge, Mr Bentley says infrastructure stocks in general suffer during times of sharemarket volatility.

During the toll-free period in June-July last year, an average of 270,868 trips was made on the tollway. After tolls were applied, the number dropped by half to 135,151 - well lower than the 186,000 forecast. Traffic volumes have steadily risen since then to a high of 155,525 in March.

The shining positive note has been the road's safety record. There have been no fatalities and only eight accidents resulting in injury. The tollway has an accident rate of 1.17 casualty accidents per 100 million vehicle kilometres, nearly five times less than Victoria's other urban freeways and about 10 times less than alternative routes, Springvale and Stud roads.

And car wrecks are definitely what ConnectEast want to avoid in future.

EastLink tolls will rise by 3.7per cent in line with a CPI increase from July 1, taking the cost of a one-way trip along the entire road from $4.96 to $5.15. A spokesman said the toll road was still Australia's cheapest at an average of 13 cents a kilometre for a full 39km trip.