With the demise of yet another toll road, the airport tunnel in Brisbane, it's about time those who provide the numbers, used to plan the viability of these projects, take the heat for their miss directed advise.

No doubt, they're off planning another possible disaster, as for them, it's business as usual as I doubt they are accountable for their gross misrepresentation.

Surely they have a case to answer!

Apart from the viability numbers being wrong I will bet that the projected cost was blown out by millions of dollars.

I smell a rat (big bribes).

Big bribes? number crunchers?
At least I can comment in this matter from an informed position.
I give my credentials for that statement.
22 years on the then DMR/RTA in NSW I saw the first major road contracted construction start here.
10 years union official, not like the average view of one, welcomed in the office and told the whole story, bribes play a minor roll.
Governments send green folk in to supervise contracts, constantly demanding extras not on the agreed contract.
That first contract, is often given on price, not ability of contractor to deliver it.
Extras, make the difference, that first contract cost near twice its contracted one.
the Contractors never had the ability to deliver.
Consider these words, given to RTA peak body unions /management, I was in that group.
Quote *we under stand in the short term it will cost more to build roads*?
*Our aim is to build 4 or more Australian contracting firms who will compete with each other to win jobs, decreasing the costs eventually*
They have failed, very few such projects come in on cost target, toll roads are sometimes paid for and constructed by their owners not government contractors, and still cost more and deliver less income.

It's time for the number crunchers to stand up and be counted.

rehctub,
Well overdue yes & they must be made accountable so we can have a possible stop to that exorbitant waste of our money. I experience this waste on an almost daily basis. And yes there is an awful lot of bribing but the bureaucrats call it consultation so it's legal.

None of the toll roads will pay a return let alone repay borrowings.
Matt Mushlik has done a study on toll roads and their finances.

http://crudeoilpeak.info/

He has a write up on the Brisbane failure and he has other pages on the
Transurban problem.

At some point it will become uneconomic to buy the petrol & tolls to
drive to work on those roads.
They like new Sydney airports are a 20th century solution to a 21st
century problem.

In NSW at least government pays for some toll way shortfalls.
It is also true many avoid with a passion any toll road, it can add up by weekend.
Toll road owners make claims to bring extra funds from governments.

Surely the number crunchers were people who were employed by McQuarie Bank who were selling the project?
As Will Rogers said "Never ask your barber if you need a haircut".
Good advice is never trust any labour politician with your money, because then you will certainly get a haircut!

What pisses me off is that when they finish these tunnels they bury the bloody machines that dig the holes.
Why not use them again?

Because chrisgaff1000, it costs more to pull them apart & get them out, in labour, & delay in getting the project finished, than to build a new one. Don’t forget these things are effectively built in place.

Are you sure that is right Hasbeen ?
I was told once that the NSW State Government owned one and was used on
the Macquarie Park line.

Bazz yes true but different things for different projects.
USA tipped new planes and tanks in to the sea it cost more to take them to storage.
The thing is it was the contracting firm who estimated the numbers of cars using this that failed.
Long way to go, will the company sue them, put the road up for sale, sue government?

Yes Belly, I think they all have clauses that if the owners goes broke they revert to government ownership.
If they can be bought cheaply enough then you could make money.

However the number of cars will decrease over the years and increases
in tolls to cope with that will only make the problem worse.
Even now, I have seen people and organisations suggesting that it is
a lot cheaper and only a bit slower to go by normal roads.

I no longer travel at those time so I can only take their word for it.
I don't even know what the tolls are so I can't work out how much it
costs per week to drive from say Seven Hills to Mascot and back every day.
It must be more than $100 a week plus petrol (after tax)!
As the shale oil to crude oil ratio changes in our petrol then there
just HAS to be significant petrol price increases.
That must cause a fall in the number of cars on the toll roads.
There is/was a US plan to put high speed light rail on one side of motorways.
Should have had that possibility written into every motorway specifications.

Here is a rort if ever there was one, the tollways are charging you
extra if the tollgate fails to read your tag device & reads number plate.
Seeing that all the equipment involved is owned by the tollway why
should the car owner pay the misread costs ?

Who needs these fancy roads ? I never asked for them so don't make me pay for them. I'm much happier with an old dirt road where no-one can go fast & have accidents. I was quite happy with the dirt road & my $114 registration. I'm not at all happy with the new road & $450 registration. For what ? To pay for you silly speeders in the Suburbs ?

Are you sure Indi? I can get pretty sideways, & pretty fast on dirt roads. In fact a couple of my old low horsepower cars are more fun on dirt than bitumen.