Premier Dominic Perrottet says his government will continue to be defined by a big-building agenda despite the state putting several multibillion-dollar megaprojects on hold due to escalating construction costs and labour shortages.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says the government will push ahead with the Parramatta light rail.Flavio Brancaleone
The government revealed on Tuesday it had approved the second stage of the Parramatta light rail – the same day,including the Beaches Link motorway and M6 extension in Sydney’s south.
The seven-kilometre Beaches Link would extend from the Warringah Freeway at Cammeray to Balgowlah and Seaforth in the city’s north-east,while the M6 would link Kogarah to Taren Point.
The government has not publicly confirmed how much the projects would cost,but some senior government figures have estimated that the two combined would be $20 billion.
While the government will heed warnings and push back the timing of the major road projects,including the Beaches Link,Perrottet said he intended to continue with the light rail,given rapid growth in Parramatta.
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“In terms of capacity constraints,you know what you can afford to do going forward,Parramatta light rail stage two ... was achievable,and it worked,” Perrottet said in an exclusive interview before theHerald’s infrastructure summit on Wednesday.
Following the government’s approval for the second stage,funding has been set aside in this month’s state budget for a bridge linking Melrose Park and Wentworth Point as well as planning works for the entire project.
Perrottet said the government’s motives for pushing ahead with the project were not political,although the Liberal-held seat of Parramatta will be targeted by Labor in the March election.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic was an example of when governments sometimes needed to reassess priorities.
An artist’s impression of the second stage of the light rail line over Parramatta River between Melrose Park and Wentworth Point.PAYCE
“When the circumstances change you’ve got to have the humility to sit there and say,‘Well,what’s the best way of staging projects that are in the best interest of people of our state?’ ”
Cities Minister Rob Stokes said it was inevitable that NSW reached a saturation point for the number of megaprojects it could deliver at once,but the government was by no means abandoning its signature infrastructure pipeline.
“Infrastructure is still very much the foundation of this government,it’s what we do,we build things. We will do everything,but we can’t do everything all at the same time,” Stokes said.
“We will always come to a point where the massive ramp up was going to hit a business-as-usual sort of level. What we’re realising now is it’s important to moderate the contracting so that we’re not actually just bidding against ourselves and pushing out costs artificially.”
While Stokes would not confirm the amount of funding allocated to the light rail project in the budget,he said,“it’s a lot of money”.
He said the light rail project,which has been shadowed in doubt for years,was chosen to proceed despite independent advice otherwise,due to the population and housing growth in the area.
“There’s going to be significant urban expansion there. Whereas[the] Beaches Link and M6 stage two,they’re not areas where there’s going to be significant housing over that same period,” he said.
“So when we’re making choices about what to contract early,we’re obviously going to prefer those ones that are going to have the closest alignment with new housing supply.”
The Infrastructure NSW report,which was brought forward at the request of former premier Gladys Berejiklian due to COVID-19,cites both the pandemic and an overheated construction market as the two biggest risks for charging ahead with big builds.
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