Extra £174m earmarked for Lower Thames Crossing
Ministers have earmarked an extra £174m for the Lower Thames Crossing, pushing the projected cost of the planned road tunnel between Kent and Essex above £3bn. Rising construction and design costs mean the scheme now carries a higher cost per mile than HS2, driven in part by tunnelling under a tidal estuary. At that price the project will be one of the UK's costliest transport builds, reshaping road capacity in the south east while using substantial public funds.
The magic money tree gets another shake. Funny how often it fruits when lucrative contracts are at risk. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/business/202...
George Monbiot188This is not the first extra sweetener the government has given the project. The money it is spending on this short stretch of road could instead be used to transform the entire national transport system for the better, as the figures here show: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Climate News21What is rather upsetting about this is that the money should be urgently invested in flood defences for the Thames. But atmospheric rivers dumping 700mm of rain in 24 hours on the Thames catchment area within the next 5 years is highly likely. The Thames barrier will only worsen a crisis.
Aphex Gwyn17Still, it's good to see the south-east of England getting some money spent on transport infrastructure. That part of the UK has been really starved of investment over the last few decades...
Neil B16It amazing how often it fruits in the London and home counties area!
Tocoso13When its money earmarked to go straight to big business suddenly the markets arent 'spooked' by public spending, invest in poverty reduction and they go ballistic!
Boiled Like Frogs11The southern magic money tree! There's never a magic money tree for northern projects. All the one's that are really necessary get binned! HS2 to Leeds binned! HS2 to Manchester binned! Transport system for Leeds binned, binned and binned again!
wonkyjonty.bsky.social9The last successful major infrastructure project in this country was probably the construction of Offa’s Dyke. We need to review their project planning documents.
David Bruce 🇳🇬🏴7George, do you ever wonder, after ukgov squanders billions on Friday-afternoon aircraftcarriers, duff engines in warships, tanks that injure crews, HS2, ESN, NPS’s, writes off billions through fraudulent Covid loans, why 4 London parties and uk media wet their knickers over 2 ferries?
Peter Timson5The way infrastructure projects are run suggests investigation by the Fraud Squad may be appropriate. Clearly initial estimates are just softeners to get the project going. It's not all contingency for sure. Poor management and mission creep too I dare say.
Lerrup5And even then, it's going to be run by a private firm in perpetuity with a regulator, which works so well in all other spheres of public life
Mrs. G4I heard a phone-in with a former HS2 contractor. Fecklessness and mismanagement throughout, combined with regular misappropriation of delivered construction materials blighted the project. Government contracts are seen, yes, as a money tree. Competence in oversight would be a good starting point.
Linda Allen4The environmental mitigation on this project is appalling. Contractors have sprayed and disturbed fields used by skylarks for nesting rather than wait a few weeks.
MarvinPA43 billion from government, then another 7 billion from the private sector? Then a bottomless pit of cost overruns.. And they wonder why the North gets pissed off. You can’t avoid sunk costs by not syncing them in the first place. FKNL!
Paul Allen4It would be nice (but surprising) if the Labour government can quickly allocate cash for this non-road project. PM says 'let's get on' with building West Yorkshire's tram network - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
KeithBrindle4Amy amount of money for London and the south. I'd just like a regular reliable train service between Leeds and Manchester. And don't get me started on the monumental farce of a financial and unnecessary disaster that is HS2.
LillyLyle/Count Melancholia4@georgemonbiot.bsky.social There's always money for projects in the south of England, never for projects in Scotland.
Sukh Singh4This will do fk all to alleviate traffic at Dartford. It will create a pollution island for towns in between…!!
Ben from Crudely Drawn Swords3This project was always going to end up under water.
Martin D3And we can’t get a walking and cycling crossing in East London, because that’s apparently too costly. If you’re not in a car, the Treasury acts like you don’t exist.
Ben3Because the ‘magic money tree’ is simply just the government crediting departmental accounts as and when it needs to… because it can
Euan Ferguson3Why don't you guys just use ferries?
Trish #AbolishTheMonarchy #FreePalestine3Meanwhile the single carriageway A1 in Northumberland continues to kill and maim. Five deaths and more injured in the last two weeks. Allocated £500m to upgrade it under the Tory government, cancelled by Labour, as not "value for money". Bean counters know cost of everything but value of nothing.
Stephen Drennan3One thing I haven’t seen mentioned in the comments is that the freight route to/from Europe is currently not resilient as it depends so much on the M20 + M25 Dartford crossing. However the lower Thames Crossing does not address the inadequacy of the A2 from Dover to Faversham Or…🚈…
DonNotDom2I wonder how much of the cost is going in profits, bonuses and "fees".
Johann S 🇨🇮🇺🇦 ⬅️2The South. Always the South.
PhilT6022This just looks like the M6 toll road on steroids! Asking private firms to invest £7.5 Billion! Even if all Dartford crossing traffic used it, the toll would be ~£10! In reality, it will likely be less than 10% of the traffic. So, we have another rich man/business only road!!
Phil Lowthian2Always shakes out well for London and the South East. Not so much up here.
£3bn from the British gov for yet another tunnel under the Thames? That's the same as the 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 infrastructure budget that Scotland was allowed in 2025. Our Government can't create money for investment like Westminster can. We need independence for that. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Pat Traynor9Scotland's "contribution" to crossrail, HS2, Thames tunnels, Hinckley Point, saving English refineries and steelwork, and many others would easily cover our much-needed infrastructure projects such as A9 & A96 dualling and even island tunnels. Let's go. LET US GO!
Andrew Quinn🏳️🌈🏴🇬🇧🏴🇵🇸🤘🏻😸6It's ALMOST like the government are deliberately mismanaging unthinkable amounts of 'other people's money' so their mates with private companies make enormous profit (and continue to give them backhanders they don't even need because of their MP wage + benefits) www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...
Kate Byrne5This is exactly how the Treasury works. Spends its money in London & nowhere else.
Scottish Yorkshire Man5So, which MPs have had the bungs for this then? Remember fuck all happens until the MP gets their bung. Look at support for Israel.
Expected to be more expensive per mile than #hs2 but it's a motorway in the south east so Labour are throwing money at it like it doesn't matter. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
CykelTony8And it's crossing nobody here actually wants, will only relieve traffic congestion for a couple of years according to their own studies/reviews. What is desperately needed is a proper public transport crossing, a train service connecting Essex and Kent, get commuters off the road.
Transport Action Network7The responsible thing would be for the government to pause work on the Lower Thames Crossing, complete the final business case, and consider whether public money could be better spent (alternatives to a ‘smart’ motorway do exist). transportactionnetwork.org.uk/is-the-lower...
Cllr Owen Burbidge 🔶5Imagine what transport in the North East would be like with that kind of money thrown at it. 😔 When a project overruns here, we have to scrabble around for scraps. Like the Tyne Bridge repairs. Having apply for funding for that from Levelling Up funding
