My money's on UGL to win the 'Melbourne Metro stage 1'.
Roads Australia Insider July 2, 2010
INFRASTRUCTURE AUSTRALIAS UPDATED NATIONAL PRIORITY LIST RELEASED
The Federal Government has today released Infrastructure Australias latest National Priority List - the pipeline of projects it considers key to a stronger economy and dealing with the challenges of sustainable population growth, export bottlenecks, urban congestion and climate change.
The latest Infrastructure Australia (IA) report - Getting the fundamentals right for Australias infrastructure priorities - includes updated advice on national infrastructure reforms and investments for Australia.
Building on the priorities in 2009, the latest List includes a number of regulatory and pricing reform recommendations, generated from the national strategy work, that IA says are aimed at improving infrastructure utilisation.
Releasing the report today, Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, said: Given it only contains projects rigorously assessed as having real merit or significant potential, the List is there to guide the long term investment decisions of both the public and private sectors, including super funds.
The IA report details a spectrum of assessment and evaluation spanning from Early Stage projects to Ready to Proceed projects, as well as Public Cost Benefit ratios for all Ready to Proceed projects.
Among new capacity investment projects listed as Ready to Proceed are:
the Melbourne Metro Stage 1
the Federal Highway Link to Monaro Highway
the Pacific Highway corridor upgrades
the National Broadband Network
Projects listed as at the Threshold include:
the NSW south-west rail link
Qlds Eastern Busway (Stages 2b and 3) and Northern Link road tunnel
Mr Albanese said the Infrastructure Australia Council had determined that future updates to the National Priority List would be completed by 30 June each year.
There was no reference in Mr Albanese's media statement to specific funding of projects.
Reform recommondations
In his covering letter, IA Chairman, Sir Rod Eddington, says the latest report focusses on a series of reform recommendations which flow from its strategy reviews in the water and energy sectors, from the emerging National Ports and National Freight Strategies, and from work on urban governance and planning reforms.
These recommendations are aimed at getting the fundamentals right for Australian infrastructure, instilling a discipline of long-term infrastructure planning that can meet Australias future productivity challenge, and making better use of our existing infrastructure networks, Sir Rod says.
The IA report says that during 2009-10 it received and assessed approximately 100 new or updated project submissions, describing the quality of information as generally higher.
Congestion pricing and road capacity
The report also includes a discussion on road pricing as part of a section on improving networks and reducing congestion (Chapter 3 of the Report).
"Notwithstanding that road user charges (including congestion charging) may prove unpopular in the short term, more serious consideration of such measures will be necessary if the required investment in road and public transport infrastructure is to be delivered," the report says.
"Infrastructure Australia believes that it is particularly important to demonstrate that funds collected from road user charges are directed back into transport infrastructure. This should include not only measures to directly reduce road congestion by building additional road capacity, but also measures to improve existing road asset use (such as managed motorways) and improvements to public transport that reduce road congestion through transfer of trips from car travel to public transport (rail or bus)."
The report also notes that: "In most cases, additional road capacity designed to facilitate private vehicle movements into urban CBDs is unlikely to lead to sustained reductions in congestion, and is likely to damage the environment and reduce urban amenity. However, some additional road capacity for example the completion of networks serving freight needs will, if properly managed, lead to improved long-term outcomes."
The full copy of the Infrastructure Australia report can be downloaded at www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/publications.aspx.
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