11.05.17
McNaughton hits back at reports of HS2 going over budget
HS2’s technical director has stated that despite recent trouble with procurement and reports of mounting costs, the opening date of the project and its budget have not changed from original estimates.
Talking at Railtex 2017, Professor Andrew McNaughton hit back at recent reports that costs for the project were spiralling out of control, including Lord Berkeley who has publicly stated that the budget of the project is likely to far exceed what was originally anticipated.
Back in April, the Peer called for a full review of HS2 after a report predicted that costs for Phase 1 alone were rocketing to £48bn – leaving no remaining funds in the budget for the completion of Phases 2a and 2b.
And HS2 has also already hit a number of obstacles in its procurement that threatened to push the project’s opening date back, most notably as CH2M was forced to withdraw their interest in the civils contract for Phase 2b, opening the door for competing bidder Bechtel to take on the contract.
Though Prof McNaughton was tight-lipped due to restrictions placed on him by purdah, he was quick to deny claims that the project was running over budget.
“The headline opening time has not changed, and is not affected by the unexpected general election,” McNaughton said during his keynote speech. “2033 is the finish date for the whole lot, and the overall cost has not changed either.”
He also had choice words for journalists reporting that the project was in danger of running massively over budget.
“In my mind you should never trust journalists,” he said. “Current costs are still at £55bn. It can change little by little, but that’s just taking inflation into account.
“Those of you in the supply sector know we talk about building to cost as well as building to time and quality. And quality is not an available area to save money, and neither is time or cost.
“It’s too easy to go ‘we’ll fix that and the rest of it goes and be what it will be’. It should not be like that.”
Prof McNaughton also explained how HS2 had done plenty of background research into other large-scale projects, and had learnt lessons that will help HS2 to be delivered to schedule.
“We looked at recent NAO reports into a lot of railway projects, and we do not have a sense of schadenfreude, we learnt our damn lesson,” he stated. “We will be designing to cost, to time and to quality – there is no alternative,” before jokingly concluding: “And no I never did have a picture of a certain lady on my wall.”
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