Ele Ludemann: They see govt coming

A planned upgrade to a pedestrian crossing near an Oamaru school has been stopped:

. . . Late last year, a $5.2 million crossing upgrade outside Pembroke School was confirmed by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.

It would have led to a radical safety improvement for the school’s Thames Highway crossing, principal Brent Godfery said.

To now have that work cancelled, under revised transport funding last month, was a “big disappointment”, Mr Godfery said. . .

What disappoints me more is how an agency can get to a cost of $5.2 million to beef up a crossing.

What were they planning – solid gold speed humps?

This isn’t the only eye-watering amount for road works. The replacement of the Frankton roundabout with traffic lights has more than doubled:

The transport minister announced the more than doubling of the budget — to $250 million, up from the $115 million previously announced — at a sod turning in Queenstown today to mark the start of the four-year project. . .

The work is urgently needed but the initial sum appears to be very, very expensive let alone more than double that.

It’s not just road works that have what seems excessive costs:

A new Kāinga Ora complex has opened in Auckland at a cost of $1.2 million per apartment as one of New Zealand’s leading developers calls the state-run agency’s record of running up billions in debt a national scandal and embarrassment. . . .

All of this begs the question: do agencies and developers see the government coming and add significant multipliers to their costs?

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.