Scotland needs extra £2bn to improve roads

Scotland’s transport infrastructure has come in for criticism from the government’s spending watchdog after it revealed that nearly £2bn in investment is needed for the region’s roads and trunk roads to bring them up to the required standard.

Audit Scotland also highlighted the fact that major road and rail projects are exceeding budgets and programmed timetables are slipping.

The report said the Scottish Executive had performed well against most of its transport plans. But it found that trunk roads need £325m to bring them up to an acceptable standard, despite the fact that expenditure on trunk road maintenance has kept pace with traffic growth. In addition, an extra £1.5bn may be needed to bring local authority roads up to standard.

The watchdog also uncovered rises in project costs and delays, compared with their original estimates, after it reviewed 15 major projects in development or under construction.

Of the eight major road projects reviewed, completion dates had yet to be set for two schemes, with one having no initial completion date. Two roads projects were planned to complete in the same year as the original estimate, although of the remaining three projects two were due to be completed a year later than estimated and another two years later than planned.

Of the seven rail projects reviewed, three planned to complete in the planned year, one was running a year later than planned, two schemes 18 months late and another three years late.

Of the 13 projects where an original cost estimate had been determined, costs had increased on nine projects. However, the report added that overall projects are delivered with low cost overruns (on average 5%) once contracts are let.

Asked if the cost rises would affect its transport plans a spokeswoman for Transport Scotland, the Executive’s transport arm, said: “Our projects remain the same as shown in our Corporate Plan published earlier this year. The costs are due to inflation, which we anticipated. We are moving away from a single cost to quoting estimated cost ranges to take into account known risks.”

[Contract Journal, 4 October 2006, p 4]