The Highway Agency’s road building program is reportedly “significantly over budget”, with three quarters of the roads completed in the past year more expensive than expected.
By Kevin Doyle
Apparently, the Highway Agency missed the memo in regards to the global recession and tight financing. The agency’s road building program is reportedly “significantly over budget”, with three quarters of the roads completed in the past year more expensive than expected.
According to Government figures obtained under Freedom of Information by the Campaign for Better Transport, the agency’s program – including all roads finished in the past 12 months, those under construction, and those in the planning stages – could be as much as £3.9 billion over budget.
The CBT said that 12 of the 16 roads which opened to the public in the last year overran on costs and, on average, came in more than 50 per cent over budget. Among projects open for traffic in 2008/09, the top budget-busters were the A14 Haughley New Street to Stowmarket scheme in Suffolk checked in 250 per cent over budget, while the A38 Dobwalls bypass in Cornwall was 205.9 per cent over budget.
The CBT said: “These cost increases, combined with expected cutbacks in public spending, mean that it is highly likely that many of these schemes will not be built.”
CBT roads and climate campaigner Richard George said: “We need to improve transport but pouring money into this black hole isn’t the way to do that.
“Rising costs and shrinking budgets means that some of these roads will never get built, so the Government should accept that we cannot build our way out of congestion, cancel some of these over-priced schemes and invest the money instead in decent and affordable public transport to give us an alternative to traffic jams and gridlock.”
In a classic attempt at spinning the numbers, a Department for Transport spokesman said it was “wrong” to say the road-building program was significantly over budget. There have been no significant changes in costs on schemes opened to traffic – or in construction – since the latest costs were published in July 2008.”
Which only begs the question: If projected costs were that high as the recession was building last summer, why were the programs started in the first place?
Source: www.cnplus.co.uk