The private operator of Sydney's NorthConnex motorway below Pennant Hills Road will receive compensation from the government if too few trucks use the tunnel.
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But the government will not say how many trucks are required to use the NorthConnex tunnel before compensation will be paid, nor how much toll-road company Transurban might receive in compensation.
The state government has said that when NorthConnex opens in 2019, it will fine trucks that avoid the toll-road by running on the surface roads but do not have a reason to do so.
The fines will help ensure trucks do not use local roads, but will also ensure an income for Transurban, which is contributing the lion's share of funds required to build the $3 billion road.
According to answers to questions on notice provided by Transurban for a parliamentary committee, the company will not receive the fines levied on trucks that avoid the road, but "NorthConnex may receive financial compensation from RMS if a certain percentage of heavy vehicles continue to use Pennant Hills Road (and other conditions are satisfied).
"This would represent compensation for loss of revenue from tolls that those vehicles would have been expected to pay had they instead used NorthConnex," Transurban wrote.
The deal was criticised by the opposition Labor Party and the Greens.
"The government's mismanagement is hard to beat," said Labor's transport spokeswoman Jodi McKay.
"Road users pay the toll company for using the road, and taxpayers pay the toll company if they don't," said Ms McKay. "Either way the toll operator can't lose."
The Greens' transport spokeswoman, Mehreen Faruqi, said described the arrangement as a sweetheart deal for a near monopoly toll-road company.
"With the NSW Liberals it's hard to figure out where corporations end and government begins," Dr Faruqi said.
"I think its a slippery slope when government starts making rules and regulations that benefit a single corporation," she said.
When NorthConnex opens in 2019, a car trip on the tunnel from the M2 motorway to the M1 freeway to the Central Coast will cost about $7.50, and a truck trip about $22.50.
The state and federal governments both contributed $405 million to NorthConnex, with Transurban paying the rest. In compensation, however, Transurban received an 11-year extension to its tolling arrangement on the M2 motorway.
A spokesman for RMS would not detail the scope of the truck compensation arrangements. The spokesman said the primary objective of NorthConnex project was to "reduce congestion on Pennant Hills Road and redirect around 5000 heavy vehicles from surface roads each day".
"Heavy vehicles will benefit from streamlined travel from the M1 Motorway at Wahroonga to the M2 Motorway at West Pennant Hills and avoid more than 20 traffic lights once the project opens," the spokesman said.
The emergence of the truck compensation deal comes ahead of an appearance before a parliamentary committee on Monday of the chief executive of the controversial WestConnex motorway.
After refusing for years to disclose his salary, the state government finally revealed that Dennis Cliche, the chief executive of Sydney Motorway Corporation that is building WestConnex, will receive about $1.1 million a year.
Mr Cliche had earlier declined to appear before the toll road inquiry.
