10 February 2010
Road Sense news release: Councillor lodges motion to protect city coffers from spiraling cost
Road Sense news release
Released: Tuesday 09 February 2010
Embargoed until 00.01am on Wednesday 10 February 2010
COUNCILLOR LODGES MOTION TO PROTECT CITY COFFERS FROM SPIRALING COST OF ABERDEEN BYPASS
Community campaigners claim new road could cost up to £1 billion
An Aberdeen City Councillor has lodged a motion, for debate this Wednesday (10 February 2010), aiming to protect the cash-strapped city’s coffers from the spiraling and uncapped cost of the proposed Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) (1).
Aberdeen City Councillor, Marie Boulton’s (2) motion states:
“Prior to confirmation of any additional financial contribution over and above the 9.5% of the current estimated £395m for the AWPR is agreed, the matter be referred back to Full Council for debate with an officers report outlining where the additional funding will come from and what the implications will be for the revenue budget and the potential knock on effect on all services.”
Councillor Boulton has lodged the motion as Road Sense, (3) the community campaigners against the AWPR, have claimed that the total cost of the new road could rise to £1 billion in total.
Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council are each committed to pay 9.5% of the total cost of the AWPR, and a £1 billion total price tag for the project could see Aberdeen City Council and Aberdeenshire Council each required to find £76 million as their share of the total cost. (4)
In response to a Scottish Parliamentary question last week (5), Scottish Ministers confirmed that the cost for delivery of the AWPR will be reviewed and updated once again before work begins.
Councillor Marie Boulton said:
“I am deeply concerned that the £395 million upper price limit for the AWPR that Ministers have been quoting for years will now end up being just a fraction of the total cost of the new road. At present, no one really knows how much the new road will actually cost, and that future total cost is currently completely uncapped.”
“This is why I have lodged a motion for debate by the Council. If Aberdeen City is required to find up to £76 million as its share of the cost of the AWPR, then we need to know where this huge sum of money will come from, and what impact it will have on other local public services. For example, will it lead to less money being available for spending on education or public transport improvements? What will we be forced to stop doing or close when we’re lumbered with this huge bill for the road?”
Councillor Marie Boulton’s motion comes just days after Aberdeenshire Councillor, Martin Ford, (6) distributed a press release claiming that Aberdeenshire Council will be unable to afford its share of the total cost of the AWPR project. Councillor Ford has previously attempted (but failed) to have a similar motion discussed by Aberdeenshire Council.
The Road Sense community campaigners have used figures from other, recent UK road building projects to extrapolate and calculate their upper cost of £1 billion for the AWPR.
In recent years the cost of road building projects has continued to rise. The South Wales Relief Road was estimated at £340 million in 2004 and increased to £1 billion by 2009. This increase resulted in the Welsh Assembly cancelling the project. The M80/A80 Stepps to Haggs cost estimate of £200 million in 2006 was revised to £320 million last year - an increase of 60% in three years.
The cost of many projects exceed £20m/km. The Heysham – M6 Link is to cost £136 million for 4.8km of dual carriageway with roundabout junctions (i.e. £28m/km), while the Carlisle Northern Development Road is to cost £150 million for 8.25km of single carriageway with roundabout junctions (i.e. £18m/km). Using a factor of 1.6 the dual carriageway rate becomes £29m/km.
Accordingly, the Road Sense campaigners have calculated that the outturn cost estimate for the 46km of high standard dual carriageway that will make up the AWPR as proposed, including a new bridge over the River Dee SAC, a new River Don Bridge, a new railway bridge, and eight new grade separated junctions is reasonably assessed at £1 billion (around £22m/km).
Sheona Warnock from Road Sense said:
“Given that no one currently knows what the AWPR will eventually cost, we’ve tried to reasonably calculate a figure ourselves by comparing it with similar projects. We believe our upper estimate of £1 billion is justified, and challenge the Scottish Government to prove us wrong.”
“It is important to emphasise that we are not talking about minor cost increases of a few million here and there for the AWPR, we genuinely believe that the road will come in hundreds of millions of pounds over-budget. Assuming those hundreds of millions of pounds can even be found, we believe they could be better spent in the coming years on local road improvements and public transport projects that would really tackle the congestion problems of the north east.”
The cost estimate for the AWPR project has risen from £120 million in April 2003, to £265-£365 million in January 2005, to £295-£395 million in December 2005. At the Public Local Inquiry into the project in November 2008, the cost estimate submitted by Transport Scotland was £347 million, however as projection of the outturn cost (i.e. for the completed work in 2013) the estimate of £347m for the AWPR is some 10 years out of date.
ENDS
Media Contacts:
- Sheona Warnock, Road Sense, on: 07817 757830 or sheonawarnock@hotmail.com
- Councillor Marie Boulton on: 01224 522186 or mboulton@aberdeencity.gov.uk
- Stan Blackley, Portable PR, on: 07770 742449 or stan@portablepr.com
Editors Notes:
1. Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR)
More information about the AWPR can be found at: www.awpr.co.uk
2. Councillor Marie Boulton
More information on Councillor Marie Boulton can be found at: <http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=119>http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=119
3. Road Sense
Road Sense was formed in January 2006 and is a community group that includes residents from across the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire areas who are objecting to the AWPR as currently proposed.
See: www.road-sense.org
4. Costs to Councils
Assuming a £1 billion total cost, and the £200 million cost of the Fastlink element of the AWPR project being met by the Scottish Government, the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Council contributions would be 9.5% of approximately £800m.
5. Parliamentary question
S3W-31234 - Andy Kerr (East Kilbride) (Lab) (Date Lodged Friday, January 29, 2010):
To ask the Scottish Executive how the (a) estimated capital value and (b) timescale of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route compares with the original project cost and timescale estimates.
Answered by Stewart Stevenson (Friday, February 05, 2010): When the preferred line of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route was announced on 2 May 2006 the total scheme cost estimate was £295-£395 million with construction commencing in 2009. A substantial public enquiry was subsequently required in response to the over 9000 objections. Consequently, construction is expected to start in 2011. The current estimated total scheme cost for the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route is £295-£395 million. This estimated cost will be reviewed and updated once the statutory procedures are completed and prior to the commencement of the procurement process.
6. Councillor Martin Ford
More information on Councillor Martin Ford, including contact details, can be found at:
http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/councillors/contact/ward_12.asp
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>From the press office at Portable PR
On behalf of Road Sense
www.road-sense.org
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08700 742449
pressoffice@portablepr.com
www.portablepr.com
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