Escalating costs put squeeze on department

19 March 2008

Pressure is mounting on the Department for Transport over the escalating cost of Highways Agency trunk road schemes, following new figures showing the cost of seven schemes rose from £1,883M to £3,032M since last year’s Nichols review.

The figures were obtained by Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker through parliamentary questions, and by the Campaign for Better Transport under Freedom of Information access. Baker accused the Government of pouring money into a road-building black hole.

‘Our public transport systems are overcrowded and unreliable, yet money is thrown at a failing road-building programme,’ he said. ‘The Government needs to recognise it cannot build its way out of congestion.’

The increases have seen the A14 Ellington to Fen Drayton estimate rise from £490M to £944M; the M1 junction 10-13 rise from £382M to £601M; and the Dunstable northern bypass increase from £48M to £124M. South East England Regional Transport Board chairman, Nick Skellett, has also written to the DfT to express his concerns about the scale of increase in Highways Agency schemes.

The board wants the DfT to make an appropriate contribution to the costs, either from its own resources or elsewhere in Whitehall. It said the three agency schemes on the A21 and A23 should still be a regional priority and development should proceed, but it noted the DfT request to reassess the value for money of the A21 Kippings Cross to Lamberhurst project.

‘I must emphasise the board’s concern that failure to provide additional funding, over and above the region’s existing regional funding allocation, will have an adverse effect on the region’s ability to deliver the agreed programme,’ says the letter.

The DfT said the new estimates were part of the response to the Nichols report. The schemes continued to offer good value for money and were consistent with Nichols’ conclusions.

‘Nichols recognised that estimating road scheme costs is inherently difficult, and subject to uncertainty, and showed that the main reason behind the increases was the higher-than-expected rate of construction inflation,’ said a spokesman.

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