Safe Speed Forums

I just read that work is starting to upgrade the A74 to a motorway BBC News

It's 5.8 miles long. It's costing £175 million.

How can they get away with spending over £30 million per mile on an UPGRADE? The M6 toll road cost £900 million for it's 28 mile length, that's £32 million pounds a mile of entirely new road - still a lot of money IMHO.

A guy did my dad's drive for £500, it's not a long drive but it's a lot more than the 0.0000266 metres of road that the Cumberland Gap will get for each £500.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

It's effectively a new road, along much of the route on a fresh alignment. The cost per mile is, as you say, fairly similar to the M6Toll.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Hmm,
<Pictures a gippo and two mates block-paving 6 miles of motorway from crap they've scrounged from the backs of lorries and demanding the cash upfront>

To be fair, it will have a couple of bridges in it - one over water the other over the West Coast main line. Looks like I'm in for deep joy on my regular Scottish commute next year then!

To be even fairer, it crosses part of the Eden flood plain, where much of the flooding occured last year.
I dont suppose they want millions of gallons washing over the M6 every time it rains hard! Those bridges are not going to be lightweights!

The land purchases alone must cost a small fortune.

I wonder if Steve Callaghan is looking forward to some rich pickings while the road works are in place - I should think enough money could be raised to pay for an extra talivan or two!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

The point I was making was that even if they did make the tarmac 60, or even 600 times thicker than the micron of tar that my dad's drive got, it still wouldn't add to to £30 million.

Land purchase? Do they do that? I thought the land was just 'assumed' (there is a guy on the M6 toll who has a sign up complaining that his land was taken, I read the details somewhere that suggested it was nothing but Government theft?)

Elsewhere on the interweb I found ONS figures suggesting the average cost for new m-way was £23 million a mile, making this short stretch cost a 30% premium. Unattributed memory (can't find link) suggests that the US budget $1 million per mile of country freeway (higher in urban areas).

I just find it hard to believe that I am getting value for money from my road tax if Whitehall madarins think £30 million is reasonable for 1600 metres of road. That's £18,750 per metre.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

Our government loves overspend. Why do you think there are problems with the NHS and the like? My mum works for the NHS, and she can see gross wastage happening everyday, with managers spinning it round to look like a good thing. It is true, there are far too many managers, and it is easy for employees to lose count of who they must see in order to do something trivial.

And can't we just See Mr. Callaghan crowing about how the CSCP has gotten accidents down in the county AFTER the Cumberland gap is finally bridged! It's a win-win situation for him. Without making a scrap of difference with his scameras, we'll loose another notorious section of road from the Cumbrian network.

That often happens when land is compulsorily purchased, and the owner either didn't want to sell, or thought the price was not fair - then claims it was "Stolen".
Often they are right!
My grandfather owned a sports club and leisure facility - in the 50's and early 60's when these were unheard of!
The council compulsorily purchased it to build houses on. It would have been worth a LOT more than they gave then, and even more now!

Those bridges will push up the price - small one in Keswick cost £75,000, and failed to meet the disability regulations. It's going to cost an additional £10,000 to put it right - a longer higher access ramp!!
(It'll go on Mad Moggie's council tax bill )

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

I would imagine that rebuilding an existing road costs more than building a new one from scratch, due to it having to be built around existing traffic, one or two lanes at a time. Having to work around existing road users means it takes longer. More time = more wage packets = more money.

It's like in IT - it takes much longer to build a system when there are people using it.

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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” - H. L. Mencken

Its an expensive old business you know.

Add in some structures, a bit of live traffic, maybe a railway and plenty of underground services to avoid and you should be able to see where the costs are.

Mind you thats not to say that things can't be made more efficient.