Waste? £692 million

MYstIC G

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Right, I just don't get it.

BBC News - Glasgow's new £692m M74 extension set to open

How can a tiny bit of road cost £692 million?

The article says it supported 900 jobs during it's construction.

If everyone was paid £2,000.00 pcm x 12 months x 3 years x 900 people that gives £64,800,000 in wages. Let's be generous and say £69.2 million (10%).

What the fuck did the other 90% get spent on?

No wonder this country is fucked.
 

Lazarus

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f**k the cost - why is the speed limit, on a motorway, set to 50mph?
 

old.user4556

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Almost all urban motorway sections are limited to 50 or 60 mph. Lots if junctions and merging / sweeping lanes.
 

Wazzerphuk

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It's Scotland, so scag. Don't know why you need to ask, it's all their money goes on.
 

rynnor

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They spent £200 million on the land they needed via compulsory purchases (probably at inflated pre-crash rates) and the rest just represents our inability to do anything on budget - the original budget for the whole thing was under £200 million.
 

Ormorof

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£10,000 on a hammer, £50,000 for a screwdriver...


...meanwhile in Area 51...

<tinfoil hat>


in all seriousness though it seems a bit ludicrous to be spending that much money on a wee bit of road
 

Chilly

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It's a raised highway. Of course it costs a shitload. Specialised concrete, environmental studies, FEA simulalations, armies of architects and lawyers, compulsory purchasing of quite a few properties. It's all fair enough tbh.
 

Gwadien

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It's Scotland, so scag. Don't know why you need to ask, it's all their money goes on.

This

Aslong as we give Scotland money, they'll rinse it, give them full independance I say, and see how long until they come crawling back.
 

DaGaffer

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It's a raised highway. Of course it costs a shitload. Specialised concrete, environmental studies, FEA simulalations, armies of architects and lawyers, compulsory purchasing of quite a few properties. It's all fair enough tbh.

Nah, I'm going with the scag theory.
 

dysfunction

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Right, I just don't get it.

BBC News - Glasgow's new £692m M74 extension set to open

How can a tiny bit of road cost £692 million?

The article says it supported 900 jobs during it's construction.

If everyone was paid £2,000.00 pcm x 12 months x 3 years x 900 people that gives £64,800,000 in wages. Let's be generous and say £69.2 million (10%).

What the fuck did the other 90% get spent on?

No wonder this country is fucked.


The rest gets spent on committee meetings...
 

Lazarus

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Not that much more and its an enormous tunnel under miles of hillside - by comparison the edinburgh one is a motorway on stilts?

perhaps thats why it cost so fecking much. if they built it in edinburgh.......they needed to then pick it up and move it to glasgow cos thats where its MEANT to be :|
 

rynnor

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perhaps thats why it cost so fecking much. if they built it in edinburgh.......they needed to then pick it up and move it to glasgow cos thats where its MEANT to be :|

Whoops :p My brain is programmed for Scottish city = Edinburgh from too many business flights...
 

Chilly

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christ do you guys actually read beyond the headline? Might as well go straight to the daily mail.
 

Tom

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Have a look at the route on Google Maps. That's some serious land purchasing, and it also travels across rivers, roads, railways. That's a hell of a lot of planning and work. Comparing it to something like the M1, which runs mostly through countryside, doesn't really cut it.

The good news is that the completion of this motorway will certainly save a hell of a lot of money in congestion. Those costs are often hidden, but think, just how much time and money is wasted by tens of thousands of vehicles taking 10 times as long as they should, just to travel a mile or so?

I just wish someone would build another motorway across the Pennines. The M62 is full.
 

Raven

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Two words.

Labour government.

Here Scotland, have some more freebies to keep you sweet!
 

old.user4556

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Two words.

Labour government.

Here Scotland, have some more freebies to keep you sweet!

Utterly and completely misinformed generalising bullshite.

I think you'll find that Scottish Labour axed the majority of Scottish road plans and it was infact the Tory government that built most of the best roads in Scotland:

- the M74 from Junction 12 as far south as Carlisle; six lanes of awesome, congestion free motorway right up to the border built between 1991 through to 1999. Often viewed as the Conservatives great gift to the motorway network in Scotland

- the M8 extension from J2 Newbridge up to the Edinburgh City Bypass completed in 1995.

- the controversial pollock-country-park-cutting M77 extension west of Glasgow that the Tories built to keep their Scottish voters happy that was completed in 1996

- the seriously fucking needed extension of the Edinburgh City Bypass to the Forth Road Bridge that sadly didn't come to fruition under the Tories and cancelled by Labour.

- The M74 extension that's just been built is sure eye wateringly expensive, but it too was axed under a Labour Government back in the 1960's

Labour did fuck all for the Scottish motorist.

Scottish roads and motorways are my gig, I've read up on them a lot over the years. Being honest, I find the cost just as shocking as the next person, but you need to go back to the 60's and the tree hugging lefties to understand that this section of motorway was due to be built but Labour crumbled and bowed down to the environmentalists. Post WW2 Glasgow was undergoing a large urban regeneration project (read the Bruce Report) for which a brand new infrastructure of roads and an inner ring road were being built. The west and north sections were built (now the M8 motorway), but the southern and eastern sections were left unfinished.

CDA_plan.jpg


The unfinished stub known as the 'ski-jump' can be seen here.

The congestion around this area of Glasgow is absolutely unbearable at rush hour, so if Labour did it right the first time round, then we wouldn't have to bear this massive cost we see before us today. Personally, I'm glad they've finally finished the M74; it allows traffic from the east (and west) to bypass the Kingston Bridge and Glasgow altogether.

The next motorway left unfinished from the 60's is the M8 completion between Glasgow and Edinburgh. I think this is due to start in 2013.
 

rynnor

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Its still better than wasting it and far more on aircraft carriers without aircraft :p
 

cHodAX

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I just wish someone would build another motorway across the Pennines. The M62 is full.

Well said, they need to extend the M67 over to Sheffield or Barnsley and stop fucking around pandering to local pressure groups. The M62 is a feking nightmare and it adds over an hour on a journey to south yorkshire when the woodhead/snakepass is closed.
 

Zenith.UK

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I wonder how many of you have actually driven through Glasgow in the last couple of years. I drive to my folks along that road a couple of times a year.

That stretch of motorway is a fucking HUGE undertaking in the middle of a built up city. The Port Eglinton Viaduct made my jaw drop when I saw them slowly pushing it into place.
M74 Completion – Port Eglinton Viaduct Bridge Launch, Glasgow | Tony Gee

Then there's stupidly big crane they used to lay the beams of the road over the Clyde. Biggest in Europe apparently.
Big lift under way as giant crane goes to work on M74 missing link - Herald Scotland | News | Transport & Environment

I still get a kick out of driving past the end of the runway of Glasgow airport. I've had planes pass directly over my head driving past there. :)
 

old.user4556

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I drive it frequently, at off peak times or coming home from a night out it's an enjoyable drive. At rush hour, getting across the Kingston Bridge is a bloody nightmare, I will be able to come off the M8, pickup the M73 onto the M74 and completely bypass it.
 

Wij

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I drive it frequently, at off peak times or coming home from a night out it's an enjoyable drive. At rush hour, getting across the Kingston Bridge is a bloody nightmare, I will be able to come off the M8, pickup the M73 onto the M74 and completely bypass it.

I'm going to paste that as my Facebook status and see how fast I get defriended \o/
 

old.user4556

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You're just jealous because your crap roads are clogged up with shire horse carriages towing gypos up the street :).
 

Embattle

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Its still better than wasting it and far more on aircraft carriers without aircraft :p

Well I suspect the carriers will be even more over budget and probably delayed enough that the airplanes might be ready :p
 

Wazzerphuk

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BTW the real Kingston Bridge crosses the almighty River Thames, noobs.
 

caLLous

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It's a teensy bit shocking that the new longest sea bridge in China "only" cost $1.5bn when put next to the M74 extension for complexity. I know the labour/material costs will be substantially lower over there and they didn't have to deal with land purchasing but still, not even twice as much for a 6-lane, 26 mile sea bridge?
 

Jeros

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It's a teensy bit shocking that the new longest sea bridge in China "only" cost $1.5bn when put next to the M74 extension for complexity. I know the labour/material costs will be substantially lower over there and they didn't have to deal with land purchasing but still, not even twice as much for a 6-lane, 26 mile sea bridge?


Yeah but you also need to think about build quality, material quality and safety standards.

The real lark is this bloody tram line in Edinburgh, it was under construction when I got here in 2009 and MIGHT be ready when I graduate in 2013, it is going to cost about 800m to finish when the original budget was 545m........

Now they are thinking of scrapping the whole thing and ripping up tracks and what have you they have installed.

"lol"
 

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