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Rob Holden, who lead HS1, and delivered it under budget said HS2 has been such a disaster, paraphrasing, because HS2 publicly declared its budget for each secti
by DrBazza 3y ago
Rob Holden, who lead HS1, and delivered it under budget said HS2 has been such a disaster, paraphrasing, because HS2 publicly declared its budget for each section, so the Cotswold tunnels, for example had a budget of, say, $10bn. So the contractors bidding to do it, bid... $9.9bn. Whereas HS1 invited bids from contractors who had no idea how much the government was prepared to spend.
Absolute idiocy.
More details in this and the links in the story: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hs2-rishi-sunak-tory-conference-b2422922.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hs2-rishi-sun...
- AlecSchueler 3y agoI remember they started doing it this was because there was concerns about companies with insider information being unfairly advantaged in the bidding stages.
- DrBazza 3y agoInteresting. I'd assumed it was something to do with the Office for Budget Responsibility and "transparency" of Government spending. I guess not. It's still absurd that the Government would announce how much they're prepared to pay in advance, and act surprised when bids come in at or above that amount.
- fennecbutt 3y agoNot unlike the Tories to be focused on getting money into their mates' pockets rather than getting the job done. Construction in the UK seems ridiculously expensive now, as a foreigner the whole country seems frozen in place when it comes to any new major infrastructure...