Auditor General Report on Dublin Road Projects

Victor

http://www.rte.ie/business/2004/0629/roads.html

Roads development scheme costs treble
June 29, 2004 19:07

The costs of the national primary roads improvements scheme, estimated at €5.6 billion in the 1999 National Development Plan, almost trebled to €16.4 billion by the end of last year. That is according to a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General, the state spending watchdog.

John Purcell said that 40% of the escalation in the overall calculated cost of the programme was due to inflation, but that about a quarter of the increase was due to underestimation of prices at the beginning of the programme.

A further 16% of the increase was due to a failure to cost certain elements of schemes at the planning stage.


Mr Purcell also said that less than three-quarters of the programme will have been delivered by the end of 2008, whereas in 2000 it could have been expected that, at the proposed funding levels and the then estimated cost, around 80% of the proposed programme would have been delivered by 2006.

He said that, even taking account of proposed increases in funding, around half of the programme being managed by the NRA will not be delivered by the end of 2006 while just under 30% will not be delivered by the end of 2008.

mike65

From unison

Costs of tunnel and roads jump over two years, report reveals


THE cost of building the Dublin Port Tunnel, the South Eastern Motorway and other major national roads projects rocketed in just two years, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General shows.

The Port Tunnel was expected to cost €220m in 2000, but by 2002 this had risen to €580m and now the current estimation is €715m, more than triple the initial projected bill.

However, the National Roads Authority told the comptroller that the cost was justified on economic grounds in an updated cost/benefit analysis.

It said the contract has features that give rise to additional up-front costs. The contractor must ensure the tunnel complies with all the design requirements and has to take the risk of any unforeseen circumstances on his own shoulders.

The still uncompleted South Eastern Motorway, the last leg of the M50 motorway around Dublin, was originally estimated at €153m. This had risen to €530m in 2002.

According to the Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell, the latest estimate stands at €595m.

A major cause of the cost escalation was the expense of acquiring land, up to €2m an acre in one case. "The cost of acquiring land has increased disproportionately in recent years," Mr Purcell's report finds.

The average cost of property for the South Eastern Motorway was €750,000 an acre - but this rose to €2m an acre for one parcel of the final stretch of M50 around Dublin.

The cost of archaeological digs has also added to the expense of building roads, according to the comptroller's report.

The original contract for the medieval site at Carrickmines Castle was €700,000 but this is now projected to cost €6.5m.

The archaeological bill for the remainder of the still-delayed road in south Dublin was due to cost €100,000 - this has now been put at €4m.

The report also highlights problems with contracts for road projects based on the lowest acceptable tender.

An examination established that, on average, the final contract cost was 42pc more than the agreed tender price and the comptroller says there is a need for "a fundamental rethink" of the use of these projects.

Eight road schemes around the country estimated to cost €387m four years ago had risen to more than €1.1bn by 2002, an increase of €659m. One fell in cost.

The whopping increases were, according to the report, largely due to the cost of interchanges and structures not originally provided for.

The estimates for a range of major improvement projects in 2000 and the same projects two years later are:

* Dublin Port Tunnel €220m - €580m.

* South Eastern Motorway €153m - €530m.

* Naas Road widening €56m - €196m.

* Edgeworthstown bypass €12m - €46m.

* Ballyvourney/Macroom bypass €78m - €225m.

* Ballinteer/Wyckham

€7 - €14m.

* Celbridge Interchange €7m - €14m.

Enniskerry Junction

€3m - €4m.

* Leixlip/M50 junction €21m - €41m.

* M50 improvements €190m - €562m.

Treacy Hogan
Environment Correspondent

I highlighted one section as it surely confims what most will have suspected or known - the NRA is incompetent from top to toe.