Brisbane Metro at risk of cost blowout
A BRISBANE City Council report has raised concerns about the Lord Mayor’s billion-dollar signature transport project, and opposition councillors aren’t holding back.
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GRAHAM Quirk’s Brisbane Metroproject is at high risk of a cost blowout, according to a council assessment of the Lord Mayor’s signature public transport policy.
The $944 million Metro has long been touted by the LNP council as a solution to Brisbane’s worsening traffic woes.
But a council assessment of the project reveals it faces a number of high risks while in procurement, including increased project delivery costs due to poor performance specifications as well as insufficient market interest or availability of resources.
The report also revealed there was a high risk the council would need to make significant changes to the project to meet approval and stakeholder needs.
The Metro vehicles were also at high risk of not being fit for purpose, according to the report.
Labor opposition councillors have seized on the findings, presented to the council at a special meeting in June, claiming it was unusual for a project of this size to have this type of risk profile.
Opposition transport spokesman Jared Cassidy described it as the most ridiculous public transport planning he had ever seen.
“The independent assessment of the project is that they really don’t know what it’s going to look like when it’s done,” he said.
“What the people of Brisbane are going to see in 2023 may bear no resemblance to what the Lord Mayor has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars telling people what it’s going to look like.”
The assessment lists a number of mitigation strategies to head off the challenges.
Council transport chairman Adrian Schrinner said the risks for Brisbane Metro were normal for such a “critical city-shaping project”, pointing out that it was tipped to deliver a 237 per cent public benefit for every dollar invested.
“Council has very successfully delivered numerous large projects of the size and scale of Brisbane Metro and our major project teams are very experienced in effectively managing risk,” he said.
“By identifying risks early and planning ahead, council is confident that all matters raised during the contracting plan process are manageable and are already being addressed.”
Cr Schrinner said since the report came to council, early works to relocate high-risk services were under way and a multidisciplinary project team to manage procurement had been established.
The council this week announced 14 local and international firms had registered their interest to build the 60 Metro vehicles, while expressions of interest for other works will close today.
The federal government announced earlier this year it was committing money to the project, ensuring it will be fully funded.
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