Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 5:59:07 to 6:06:34
Discussion on emergency repairs for Mitchell's Causeway on the Great Western Highway and the progress of the Mandalong Road upgrade in New South Wales.
Topics: Infrastructure, Procurement
Speakers: Senator Ross Cadell, Lok Potticary, Jessica Hall, Unknown Speaker, Senator Glenn Sterle
>> Thank you very much. Um, going back to New South Wales, there's a couple of roads, Mitchell's Causeway, Great Um just that process just want to know when the federal government became involved when it was asked to go in funding. New South Wales came out I think Marchish um in the year and announced $50 million when it couldn't get there and I think we came out in August it was reprofiled then um in August for about 100 million from the state 100 million from feds. When were you first asked to contribute?
>> Oh thank you brother
>> or be get involved in that project. I'll
have to take on notice um requests from the New South Wales government in relation to that one, but uh as you said, Senator, the Australian government announcement of the $100 million was in August of of this year. So, but you'll >> in terms of request to take that on
notice. >> What happens in that where we've got existing roads? It's not a new program. It's not an upgrade, it's a fix. Do we actually go and look at is there a business case done on the cost of opportunity costs the marginal cost of not fixing like they're now going through liftgate they're going on Bell's line they're going on Victoria Pass do we look at what that costs for
so I guess taking it back a step the the road had closed um the great western highway due to the failure at Mitchell Causeway um the New South Wales government had um shut the road for safety reasons and was looking at ways uh to get that open. There's a solution that they've identified in terms of building building a I guess a deck above the existing causeway to get that open. And as part of the announcement, there'll be an additional climbing lane as well. So um allowing heavy um vehicles to overtake sort of slowmoving heavy vehicles and that's being incorporated into the project. So, um, this was a circumstance where there was a a road that was closed and a solution being identified for that.
>> Yeah. But I just want to get because it's not the normal one. It's not like we're going to build another airport. We're not going to build another road. We're not going to do a road. This is stuff's gone bad. How do we unbad it as quickly as we can? What's the process? What's the business case? How do you evaluate that? Because it is I've not known many like this in the past. It's a true thoroughare freight line dependency on and there's all also you've spent money recently on making the bottom of that out through litho and the the bypass a lot better through Hartley. So
So this was a um a a project where um the two teams between transport for New South Wales um and our team I think worked quite closely together but um infrastructure New South Wales was also um quite heavily involved um in this project as well as my understanding to um work through a solution um and so the teams did actually meet quite regularly I think on um a a solution for this project. Obviously, it was done predominantly by the line and transport for New South Wales, but they did keep us um informed as to what their options were and how they were going to do it and talked us through um what they were putting on the table so that when time um came around to be able to brief the minister, we were in a good position to do that with the information that we actually had. and we included I think infrastructure Australia um on that as well um where we could too
>> on the theory of my entire career I'd rather be lucky than good I spoke about this in the chamber luckily one day before it was announced what was the timing my concern was New South Wales comes out with a $50 million program in March and suddenly by August it's a two what $200 million program how I I want to know the trajectory of how that escalated for you Guys, that's why the timing is important because I think we're still not opening till QT27 is my last update on when we're expecting that to open. Is that correct?
>> Q2, did you say?
>> Yeah, Q2.
>> Yeah, that's my understanding. That's
the time. >> Was it held back by and I know you want to New South Wales Transport or anything like was it held back by that delay in going from a 50 million program to a 200 million program? What what is the opportunity cost of that? What's the productivity cost of that?
>> So, I just I might just clarification. My understanding is that New South Wales government had a couple of there were funding committed to short-term upgrades. Um, and I'm not sure whether the $50 million you're talking about was part of that, but when the road failed, um, there was obviously detours that needed to be um, put in place and that put additional pressure on other roads in the region. So, the New South Wales government um, had some funding allocated to maintain those roads to reflect for the increased traffic. So, I would need I'm I'm not sure whether the $50 million you're talking about fell into that category.
>> That was their announcement to fix it, but I won't take I won't hold you to that. That wasn't you. How do we go when priorities closed? I I'm aware there was a a long time ago an allocation for a road in I think it was Mandalong Road in Moriceet in New South Wales that the federal government put some money to because it was a Lake McQuary priority, but transport for New South Wales said, "Yeah, we'll get it round to it when we want. It wasn't a priority for them." So suddenly we're 3 years later and nothing's happened. The cost would have blown out. How do you balance those different priorities between local government, federal government and transport for New South Wales?
>> So the Australian government does I suppose just to go to your point, the Australian government does have a commitment on Mantelong Road for the upgrade. Um and that project is working its way through um the business case and detailed design. So I think um detailed design is nearing completion if it hasn't already and then it's moving into the construction phase expected in the second in the first half of next year. So just to clarify, there is a there is a funding commitment in that project as
well. >> I 100% get it. But you guys, the federal taxpayer is bearing the cost that I think was that probably three year, four year commitment. You've had that on the
>> uh yeah, I think it was in the 22 23 budget that that um that commitment was made
>> and because it wasn't a priority, it's dragged on. So your commitment, our budget, our federal budget is now getting the increased cost of construction because it wasn't a priority for New South Wales. That was a
concern. So some of the things that we look at in regards to and this is more of a generic comment rather than a um project by project um is um the deliverability of those projects um the cost um allocation. So we'll have a look at um how much they've put in for um cost escalation, how much they've put in for delivery, how much they've put in for risk. um we'll have a look at when they've actually said that the project is actually going to be ready, how far a pro along the project is in regards to um uh its planning. So there are some projects that for example um in the information that they've provided they've actually said it's not going to be ready for delivery because you have to go through and so then we will check to make sure that the cost escalation figures and stuff are appropriate to be able to deliver at that.