Why protecting seven infrastructure corridors can save 11 billion

Why protecting seven infrastructure corridors can save $11 billionAction to protect seven vital infrastructure corridors could save Australian taxpayers close to $11 billion, and avoid cost overruns, delays and community disruption, finds a new report from Infrastructure Australia.The nation’s independent infrastructure advisor has launched a new policy paper, Corridor Protection: Planning and investing for the long term, the third in its reform series.The seven strategic corridors identified on the Infrastructure Priority List are: east coast high speed rail, outer Sydney orbital, outer Melbourne ring, Western Sydney airport rail line, and the freight lines of Western Sydney, Hunter Valley and Port of Brisbane. Infrastructure Australia Chairman Mark Birrell says meeting Australia’s future growth challenges requires long-term vision. “If we protect infrastructure corridors we will reduce project costs and especially minimise the need for underground tunnelling, where the cost to government and therefore taxpayers can be up to ten times higher than it would have been.”Recent tunnelled motorway proposals are expected to cost in the order of $100 million per lane per kilometre to build.Infrastructure Australia estimates that protecting the seven corridors could save Australian taxpayers $10.8 billion, which Birrell says “is the equivalent of more than two years’ spending by the Australian Government on land transport such as major roads, railways and local roads”.Birrell says the most urgent priority for protection is the east coast high speed rail corridor. “This critical corridor faces immediate pressure due to its proximity to major population centres and should be a key focus for NSW, Victorian and federal governments.”Infrastructure Australia recommends the establishment of a national framework for corridor protection to guide coordinated and meaningful action by all levels of government.Glenn Byres, the Property Council’s chief of policy and housing, says the report demonstrates how long-term planning can provide substantial savings to taxpayers in the decades ahead. “While high speed rail is the project most people focus on, the broader principles and other projects are just as critical.”For the next twenty-five years, Australia will be building the equivalent of one city the size of Canberra every single year and we must plan and prepare for that coming growth now.”Byres notes that Sydney’s second airport, currently underway, “is only a viable infrastructure project today because of land decisions made by governments a generation ago”. He says the seven priority projects will “connect markets, seed new precincts and open up more areas for the housing of the future”.Download Corridor Protection: Planning and investing for the long term.