NSW: Costly Harbour tunnel is valuable: Daley
11 Dec 2008 2:22 PM
SYDNEY, Dec 11 AAP - The NSW government insists the Sydney Harbour Tunnel is a valuable motorway even if it will cost taxpayers $1.1 billion over the next 14 years.
A NSW Auditor-General report shows the tunnel owners will receive the government payment to meet the shortfall from the optimistic traffic forecasts contained in the contract.
About 90,000 vehicles use the tunnel each day, but the agreement with the owners - Transfield, Kumagai Gumi and Tenix - had predicted the daily figure would be more than 113,000 by now.
Roads Minister Michael Daley said he would not second guess the contract decision made by a previous Labor government 21 years ago.
He said recent motorway agreements had be drawn up so there was no risk to the taxpayer, and that was the way future agreements would be struck.
However, Mr Daley said the value of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel could not be disputed.
"It's an incredibly valuable piece of infrastructure," Mr Daley told reporters on Thursday.
"No one would argue that our city and our state is much better served by having a second harbour crossing."
Opposition roads spokesman Duncan Gay said Labor had a 100 per cent failure rate when it came to negotiating deals for tunnel infrastructure.
Mr Gay said the Cross City Tunnel project went broke after just 16 months and the Lane Cove Tunnel currently had severe financial difficulties.
"The taxpayers of NSW should not have to pay the expensive price of the Labor government's botched tunnel deals," he said.
