A report by MPs into the handling of road-building schemes has criticised the government for allowing costs to escalate by more than 40% of initial estimates. The Department for Transport (DfT) has now been told to hold the Highways Agency (HA) to account for delivery time, cost, and the original estimates of road building projects.
It has also been advised to investigate the reasons for variations between actual costs and estimates.
The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, made up of 16 MPs from across the political spectrum, says that by September 2006 36 of the HA's completed road-building schemes had cost 40% more than initially expected.
It also says that over a quarter of the HA's schemes due to start construction by the end of 2005-06 had not done so. It picks out the A46 Newark to Widmerpool improvement as a project that has been delayed until 2012-2013.
The report says the HA needs to strengthen its estimating and project appraisal techniques "as a matter of urgency" and challenges the DfT to rigorously assess the HA's progress.
The report says: "Since the dawn of civilisation, governments have been constructing roads, yet the [HA] has yet to master the estimation of scheme costs, and lives within its budget by allowing schemes to slip sometimes years into the future."
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