Road quality too high and costly: Truss
An Abbott Government will ask Infrastructure Australia to look at reducing the quality of road projects to stretch transport funding further.
Road quality standards had risen to a point beyond where they made sense from a funding point of view, shadow infrastructure and transport minister Warren Truss said yesterday.
“There are many people who believe that standards have reached a stage where they’re greater than what our community can afford,” Truss told a transport luncheon hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Adelaide yesterday.
“We are determined to get better value for our road and rail expenditure. Yes, our roads must be strong and safe, they must be capable of doing their job.
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“But are we adding additional costs that don’t deliver any greater benefits to the community?”
Truss named the Bruce Highway upgrade in his own Queensland electorate as one with a questionable cost-benefit ratio.
“I have a road construction project occurring in my own electorate at the present time. It’s a four-laning of the Bruce Highway. The estimated cost for this project is $60 million a kilometre.
“I just have to ask the question – are the standards that are being adopted, or the cost structures that are applying in a project like this, beyond our capacity to pay?”
Stage 1 of the Cairns Bruce Highway Upgrade will increase safety and reduce congestion on 3.4km of road near Cairns. The project will cost $150 million, according to the upgrade website.
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