Road building

19th November 2007

Major road building projects in the UK ran massively over budget last year, according to the latest Government figures.

By September 2006, the 36 schemes completed by the High-ways Agency (HA) had already cost a massive 40 per cent more than expected. To resolve the situation, the Govern-ment’s Committee of Public Accounts (CPA), which published the data, has suggested the large projects that tend to soak up most of the cash should belong to a national programme.

Also, it added specific funds should be made available for local solutions which would otherwise be delayed indefinitely in favour of wider regional schemes.

At present, these smaller projects have been pushed back on the list of priorities, which has led to them being put on hold for as long as six years. The committee concludes that the Department for Transport (DfT) and HA had not kept abreast of emerging trends in the construction market, relying instead on old data to estimate costs.

It suggests that both organisations should review fees for construction material and labour on a quarterly basis in an effort to keep on top of budgets, and develop new strategies for driving prices down. The HA and DfT are urged to recruit and train their own staff to do this, too. External consultants are currently used, but the CPA says they can lead to a clash of interests if they are employed by major contractors on other schemes.