Melbourne's West Gate Tunnel workers are back on the tools after planning approval for the $6.7 billion project was briefly revoked.
But further parliamentary action means the team of hundreds of workers could continue on a stop-start regime.
Work resumed on Thursday when the government re-gazetted the controversial road being built in partnership with toll road giant Transurban.
It came after the Liberals and Greens joined forces in the upper house a day earlier to axe planning approval for the tunnel. They have threatened to repeat the move.
"It is simply not acceptable for the Liberal Party and the Greens to put their head in the sand and say 'we don't need a second river crossing'," Roads Minister Luke Donnellan told reporters.
Road commuters from Melbourne's west came to a standstill on Thursday when a truck jackknifed and blocked four lanes on the West Gate Freeway.
The traffic chaos added strength to the government's attacks on those who voted to block planning permission for the tunnel.
But both the Liberals and Greens are standing firm and say they will vote to revoke the planning permission again if the government does not concede changes.
The opposition says the tunnel is a "dud" deal for motorists, who will have to pay higher tolls for longer because the government wants to extend Transurban's deed to pay for the road.
"I support a second river crossing, but you've got to have a deal that is good for Victorians, you can't have the taxpayer extorted by Transurban," Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said.
The Greens want to see the entire project scrapped in favour of new truck off-ramps from the freeway, improved public transport, wider truck bans and freight-to-rail.
"It's a bad project, it's another dodgy project ... it's going to pour thousands of cars into the CBD," Greens transport spokesman Sam Hibbins said.
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