This thread concerns the disastrous Westgate Tunnel Project. The pet project, in fact signature project of Broke Back Mountain premier Daniel Andrews.
The original project was costed at $5.5billion with a community benefit estimate of 1:1.3
The article below published in The Age today details further cost blow outs taking the project to $11 billion with a net community benefit of 1:0.65 meaning that the project now has a net negative benefit.
The massive costs blow outs are due to poor planning of moving underground infrastructure and changes in handling of toxic soil. both massive own goals of Andrews and his incompetent government.
And what is worse the tunnelling will likely start after the supposed completion date of the project in 2024
This is the second worse outcome of any activity undertaken by the Andrews Labor government. Unfortunately the worst outcome was from the 801 deaths caused by the mishandling of Hotel Quarantine in Victoria.
Daniel Andrews should resign.
********************************************************************************************************* West Gate Tunnel project faces $4b blowout amid contaminated soil crisis By Timna Jacks
June 16, 2021 — 5.09am
The tolling giant building the West Gate Tunnel claims the cost of the project has blown out by a further $1 billion to a total of $11 billion, more than double the original estimate.
With tunnelling work yet to start, confidential Victorian government documents obtained by The Age reveal toll road operator Transurban – the government’s partner in the project – is claiming cost overruns have risen from $3 billion to $4 billion.
The cost of the West Gate Tunnel is going up, and up.CREDIT:JOE ARMAO
The tunnel linking the West Gate Freeway in Yarraville with CityLink at Docklands was set to open this year but is two years behind schedule due to a protracted three-way dispute between Transurban, its builders and the Andrews government.
The dispute centres on the handling of about 3 million tonnes of soil contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals – the potential carcinogens known as PFAS.
No tunnelling has been done because Victorian landfills were not licensed to receive the PFAS-contaminated soil due to a change in the state’s waste regulations after the project contracts were signed.
The road’s delays are not coming cheap. Initial estimates in 2015 were that the project would cost $5.5 billion but by 2017, when contracts were signed, the cost had risen to $6.7 billion.
In the second quarter of 2020 – between April and June – Transurban claimed it faced a $3 billion cost blowout on the project, according to the documents leaked to The Age.
Government documents show that by the final quarter of the year – between October and December – Transurban upped its claim to a $4 billion overrun. The PFAS soil crisis was the reason for the latest increase, pushing the project’s estimated price tag to $10.7 billion.
These costs were first raised by the project’s builders. Transurban is passing them onto the state government under the terms of their private-public partnership deal. The claims do not necessarily reflect the final cost of the project, which would be negotiated with the builders and the government.
An Andrews government spokeswoman said no claims on the project have been accepted. “Claims are made by construction companies all the time,” she said. “We have a fixed-price contract with Transurban to deliver the West Gate Tunnel project, and we’ll be holding them to that contract.”
A Transurban spokeswoman said it was “not unusual for contractors on major infrastructure projects to encounter challenges and to put forward claims to advance their commercial position”.
“That doesn’t mean those claims are accepted. The three project parties are currently involved in legal and commercial processes to resolve these matters and discussions remain commercial-in-confidence.”
Transurban estimates the cost of the project’s PFAS problem is $3 billion to $3.3 billion, while $1 billion has been attributed to challenges in relocating pipes for major utilities.
Late last year, the Andrews government reached an agreement with the builders of another of its major infrastructure projects, the $11 billion Metro Tunnel, to split the cost of a $2.7 billion blowout. This followed months of negotiations, with the builders making ambit claims of a $3.3 billion blowout and 18-month delay.
The leaked West Gate Tunnel documents also reveal the Andrews government is in a dispute over delays in constructing a bridge over the Maribyrnong River connecting the tunnels with an elevated road above Footscray Road.
Chinese-owned John Holland and Spanish-controlled CPB Contractors are refusing to carry out these works until an agreement on cost blowouts is reached.
Separate project documents leaked to The Age reveal new details about the planned management of the huge amounts of rock and soil being dug up to build the twin road tunnels beneath Yarraville.
Once the wet dirt is excavated by the tunnel-boring machines, it will be transferred on a conveyer belt to a dedicated “bin” at a large spoil handling shed on Whitehall Street, Yarraville.
Each tunnel will have its own bin, which will be large enough to store thousands of tonnes of soil being dug up over a maximum two-day period.
Excavators will then transfer the soil from the bins onto trucks, which will make up to 15 trips an hour over 24-hours, seven days a week, for two years.
The trucks transferring the soil to approved landfills will follow specific routes. They will be sealed to prevent leaks, as the soil will be 50 per cent water. The truck’s details, the time and date the truck was loaded and the source of the material will be recorded.
RMIT’s director of urban research Jago Dodson said major transport project costs were typically “low balled” initially and tended to blow out during construction, raising serious questions about their benefits to taxpayers.
A fresh business case of the West Gate Tunnel that factored in cost overruns would prove the project was “not viable, from an economic point of view,” he said.
