The $14 billion Metro Tunnel has run out of funding set aside for unexpected costs, with builders set to seek more taxpayer cash to finish the job.
Warnings that Metro’s “contingency” funds – which are effectively spent when things go wrong – were running low began following Victoria’s Covid-19 shutdowns, and forced parts of the project to be cut back.
But recent cost pressures, which include delays to the two CBD station builds revealed by the Herald Sun, and the complexity of testing trains and communications systems, have tipped the city-shaping project into the red.
The Tunnel’s budget has already blown out by more than $3bn, including more than $1.7bn coughed up by taxpayers, but sources familiar with the project said a further injection of cash from the public purse would be inevitable.
Builders are set to seek more taxpayer cash for the Metro Tunnel. Picture: David Crosling
The Allan government on Wednesday did not directly response to questions about cost overruns, or whether legal claims for extra cash had been lodged by builders or the alliance doing train and signalling testing.
But one industry figure said mega project financiers had a renewed focus on the Metro Tunnel in recent weeks, raising concerns the budget was blown — again.
Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Southwick said it looked like “more of the same from a decade-old government that has lost control of our state’s infrastructure pipeline”.
“What else will Jacinta Allan have to cut, close, or cancel to pay for yet another budget blowout?” he said.
A government spokesman said the project, which would transform how people travel in Melbourne, was “currently at its most complex phase” that was “testing advanced technology that has never been used on the Victorian rail network”.
Extracts from Herald Sun
