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Subject: Fri.21.5.21 daily digest

Roderick

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Fri.21.5.21 Metro Twitter
Aircraft: No ramp access to platforms until late 2021 (pedestrian-underpass works).
Flinders St: still with a lane closed for tunnel works.
9.35 Werribee/Williamstown/Sunbury Lines: Major delays (a truck striking a bridge at Napier street Footscray).  Trains may be held at available platforms. [The Sunbury line doesn't cross this bridge].
- 9.47 Still major, but recovering.
14.12 Because of a planned protest in the CBD, there are road and lane closures in parts of Spring, Flinders, Victoria, Bourke and Exhibition streets. 
- 14.59 Tram and bus services are impacted.
Pakenham/Cranbourne lines: Buses replace trains city - Caulfield from 20.35 until the last train of Sun 23 May (maintenance works).
Buses replace trains North Melbourne - Newport/Williamstown from 21.00 until the last train of Sun 23 May (works).

Fri.21.5.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Westside stations to expand
COMMUTERS in Melbourne’s west will get more seats on trains and standing room on platforms under a $93.6m boost to the city’s growing network.
Platforms at Sunshine station will be extended to accommodate bigger nine-car VLocity trains and higher-capacity trains to and from Wyndham Vale, which will increase capacity by 50 per cent by 2023. In Melbourne’s southeast, $240m will be spent untangling the Cranbourne/ Pakenham and Frankston lines, which run through Caulfield station, allowing peak-hour trains to run services every two minutes.
An additional $2m will be spent transforming the station into a new interchange for the train lines, where it will be only one stop from the city once the Metro Tunnel opens in 2025.
Drivers will benefit from a suite of upgrades to Melbourne’s roads under a $32.4m package that will ease congestion across the city.
Punt Road between the Princes Highway East to Swan Street and the Bulla Road and Tullamarine Freeway interchange are among the several routes earmarked.

Fri.21.5.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' BLOWOUTS HIT AS VIC DIGS DEEPER. MATT JOHNSTON
MEGA infrastructure projects in Victoria have had $3.8bn worth of budget blowouts in the past two years, as the state embarks on another unprecedented building blitz.
Treasurer Tim Pallas revealed $90bn — or $1.9bn a month — will be spent on new roads, rail, schools and hospitals over the next four years, fuelling the state’s economy.
Mr Pallas said the spending was more than four times what it was early last decade and was necessary for the state’s future, but conceded this would put “greater heat” into the market.
Herald Sun can reveal the top project overruns of the past two years were $1.37bn extra for the Metro tunnel, $735m for tram infrastructure upgrades and $429m for a new prison in southwest Victoria.
Transport experts have warned pumping too much construction work into the state at the same time could cause industry traffic jams and cost increases.
But the treasurer insisted the government’s efforts to invest in skills, provide access to raw materials, and change its contract processes, would reduce that risk.
He said the state’s total capital project pipeline was worth $144bn, while 177,000 jobs had been created through the state’s big build over the past six years.
“The government will continue to attend to what are the underlying causes associated with the escalation of price and risk,” he said.
“Those challenges will continue as we continue to invest more and more in the capital that this growing state needs. To do anything less than that I think would compromise the future.”
Opposition transport infrastructure spokesman David Davis said the state’s poor project management was contributing to blowouts.
He said the budget was “where the financial chickens start to come home to roost with literally dozens of transport infrastructure projects blowing out”.
“The cost blowouts on key projects total billions individually with smaller projects in the tens and hundreds of millions.
“Everywhere you look rail and road infrastructure projects have blown out because the Andrews government can’t manage these projects.”
Thursday’s state budget included a suite of social infrastructure spending in areas such as health and education.
There was $507m for mental health units, 10 new community hospitals, and $1.4bn for new or improved schools.
A massive pipeline of transport builds is already in the works, including a $15.8bn North East Link between the Eastern Freeway and the M80 in Greensborough, and an $8bn-$13bn airport rail link.
Those projects are not yet contracted but are in contingency funds.
Mega projects worth more than $100m have been hit by the worst cost rises, with smaller projects holding up better.
Budget papers show that 117 mega projects have been hit by $3.8bn in blowouts in two years, with a quarter having timelines altered.
Of a total 1141 state-funded capital projects, the net rise in costs has been $3.6bn, which puts some projects under budget, offsetting taxpayer pain from bigger projects.
The overrun for the Melbourne Metro Tunnel, which was contracted for $11bn but is to cost $13.7bn, was revealed late last year by the government after it agreed to share the bill with project builders.
A bigger bill looms on the West Gate Tunnel, which was to be finished next year at a cost of $6.7bn but now looks unlikely to open before 2024.
Mr Pallas said the state was not budgeting for that because we “have a contract”.
“It’s a fixed contract and we expect that the contractors, Transurban and their joint venture partner, honour the terms of that contract,” he said.
On broader construction industry congestion, Mr Pallas said there was “massive infrastructure investment going on right across the eastern seaboard of this nation”.
But he said shifts in government actions should offset blowout risks, including by better scoping projects.
“Early engagement with proponents (is crucial), the sort of thing we are starting to apply to our level crossing removals, with our North East Link,” he said.
“The second thing we need to do is give greater supply and certainty around resources.
“Additionally we need to put more and more effort and emphasis into ensuring that we have the skills necessary.
“Finally, the state needs to recognise that we need to have a flexible approach to the way that risk is managed based on each and every project.”
Global credit ratings agency S&P raised concerns on Thursday about the amount of debt being taken on to fund infrastructure, but said “infrastructure plans will help economic growth and address future infrastructure needs”.

Fri.21.5.21 Melbourne 'Herald Sun' Letters:
* No thought in stations. A WET day last week showed poor design on Metro’s rail network is not limited to future projects such as the Melbourne Airport rail link as highlighted by Sunshine and Albion residents (“West not wild for airport ‘sky train’ ”, HS, 13/5).
Sheltering under Merlynston station’s basic 1960s building, I remained nice and dry. Awnings extended close to the edge of the platform.
Alighting at Coburg’s new skyrail station was a study in contrasts. Ugly high awnings were ineffective against rain drifting on to the elevated platforms. The cover does not extend to platform edges.
Logically, waiting rooms have usually been on platforms. Yet at Coburg and other rebuilt skyrail stations, the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority often constructs these on the ground floor.
How are passengers meant to exactly time their trek in the lift, up stairs or along a ramp to make sure they catch their train?
Coburg station, with its ugly solid noise barriers, lacked rooftop views as did noise walls along its skyrail.
As at Bentleigh, a major level crossing was abolished at Bell Street but new pedestrian lights have been installed, negating time savings for the route 903 SmartBus or other road users.
Jacinta Allan and Ben Carroll are smothering our rail lines in ugly shotcrete. You’d think they’d learn from the wonderful designs of stations such as Camberwell and Malvern rather than deliver costly ghetto-like structures.
* Injecting site folly. JUST when you think the wizards from Spring Street have emptied their folio of dumb ideas, they now propose to locate a second injecting room close to two major railway stations. Suburban and regional drug users will now have ready access to public transport direct to the CBD. Pity the public using this resource. At least Lord Mayor Sally Capp will see a big increase in visitations to the city.