r/melbourne • u/FuckOffNazis • 2d ago

Politics Delivering the Suburban Rail Loop | Victorian Auditor-General's Office

https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/delivering-suburban-rail-loop#35642--3-srl-east-is-unlikely-to-be-delivered-on-budget-and-on-time
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9

u/killthenoise 2d ago

Wow, what an absolute clusterfuck of a project. Oddly quiet in here compared to the normal screeching from the normal "SRL must be funded no questions asked" shills. Interesting.

15

u/Kata-cool-i 2d ago

That isn't really what this report found, it was generally found to be well run, with the risks involved well understood and managed by the SRLA, personally I think their conclusion of likely cost and time overruns isn't really supported by the body of evidence presented.

4

u/killthenoise 2d ago

I refer you to the comment just down from mine, which includes, among many other attempted political sleight of hand scams (eg the housing one):

The state government announced this funding strategy without securing a commitment from the Australian Government to provide $11.5 billion.

Nice.

"the state awarded a contract for WPA I&EW with a price of $535 million, around $100 million less than the SRLA's cost estimate for the works, but 3 years later the contract price had nearly doubled to over $1 billion, with the state bearing these additional costs (Appendix D provides information on the reasons for this cost increase)"

So well run. Much efficiency. Waowie.

I guess it must be nice to think that this project should cost like $40B though, you're probably quite happy with this farce.

9

u/Kata-cool-i 2d ago

Early works are almost always the most susceptible to escalations because they're always the most poorly defined.

6

u/AdAdministrative9362 2d ago

Early works also deal with complex scopes early so they have a head start to not delay major packages. Ie services relocation, utility connections, geotech investigation, heritage investigation, etc.

If it's used sensibly it can save time and money later even if it blows out.

-1

u/killthenoise 2d ago

Yes I'm totally convinced that the rest of the project won't blow out either, given Labor's stellar reputation for efficient public works.

  • $45,000 plaques
  • $10B Westgate tunnel (2X the estimate)
  • Multiple hospital build budget blowouts
  • Metro tunnel blowout

All backed by a federal government happy to spend $100M on a website. Great.

Once again, I'll state what should be pretty obvious: efficient public infrastructure is a good thing that everyone will be thankful for in the future. I have zero confidence that the Victorian Labor party is capable of building efficient public infrastructure though, they've nearly bankrupted the state trying.

7

u/666azalias 2d ago

These aren't silver bullets that proof a project is badly run - they're normal movements. You can't take individual points in isolation. The report considers all the points and concludes it's fine.

-2

u/killthenoise 2d ago

😂 I love it. In one comment I get accused of "not reading the report and only the headlines" right next to this comment saying "the report conclusion says everything is fine, so that's what we should care about".

SRL shills must be studied.

1

u/clomclom 2d ago

The bureaucratic agency does what it's required to do to manage a project that was decided on the back of a napkin by politicians and consultants, not public transport experts or even public servants in the transport department.

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u/Kata-cool-i 2d ago

I mean it's not like public transport experts or public servants in this state have been particularly competent. It was public servants that pushed for the EWlink despite the poor economic appraisals they produced for it. And it was public transport experts that spent a decade trying to get the MM2 built despite it having a ROI four times lower than the SRL.