The last decade has been an expensive one for Victorian taxpayers. After forking out many billions of dollars on the Labor Party’s hideously expensive desalination plant and the Myki public transport ticketing project, taxpayers were then required to dish out hundreds of millions of dollars more to exit the Napthine Liberal Government’s wasteful East-West Link tunnel project.
Today, The Age’s Clay Lucas has questioned why that the $5.5 billion “Western Distributor” that would link the western suburbs with the City Link toll road – which has been proposed by Transurban and is under serious consideration by the new Labor Government – would cost roughly double that of the 9 kilometre, $2.65 billion, NorthConnex tunnel currently currently being constructed in Sydney:
Transurban says the Sydney road is so much cheaper than the plan for Melbourne largely because of the difference in geological tunnelling conditions.
“In Sydney, there are ideal tunnelling conditions with Sydney sandstone enabling very efficient tunnelling techniques,” a spokeswoman for Transurban said. “In Melbourne, there are complex geological conditions requiring significantly more complex tunnelling techniques”…
Sydney-based actuary Ian Bell has looked at both Transurban proposals and said it was not clear why the Victorian plan was so much more expensive, given the toll road operator could expect about twice as much daily traffic to pay to use the Melbourne road…
Jago Dodson is director of the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT. He co-authored a report last year on the likely long-term costs of the East West Link toll road.
He said no public money – whether from Victoria or Canberra – should go into funding the Transurban road.
“Transurban is a private business, and it should be able to finance its own toll road projects,” Professor Dodson said. “They should wear all of the risk.”
Now, I am no engineer or geologist, but the high price tag for the proposed “Western Distributor” does sound fishy, even if it does still represent better value than the hideously expensive East-West Link.
Of course, we should not be surprised. Any proposal that has come from a private toll road company would be expected to contain lots of fat. The question is whether the Andrews Government can now negotiate a deal that represents good value for taxpayers and motorists, rather than Transurban shareholders?
Given Victoria’s recent poor track record on infrastructure, I do not hold much hope. For future reference, here’s what should be done:
- Conduct detailed scoping analysis of alternative infrastructure proposals;
- Rank proposals based on transparent and rigorous cost-benefit analysis; and
- Finance proposals in a way that ensures the lowest overall cost to both taxpayers and users alike.
