The ACT is set to spend more than three times what it originally planned on a 4.5-kilometre road duplication project in Canberra's west.
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The total value of the works on William Hovell Drive has doubled since they were first announced to $107.25 million.
The ACT government and the Commonwealth were originally set to equally share the estimated $53 million project cost to duplicate the road between John Gorton Drive and Drake-Brockman Drive.
But territory budget papers reveal the ACT will spend $80.75 million on the project, more than three times its original $26.5 million contribution.
The Commonwealth contribution for the project has not changed.
A spokesman for the ACT government said the territory had approached the federal government for support to cover the extra costs.
"Like other infrastructure projects across Australia this project has experienced cost-escalation due to a range of factors including increasing cost of materials," a government spokesman said.
The spokesman said the original cost of the final scoped project in a completed business case was $63.25 million.
Budget papers from 2021-22 and 2022-23 show the Commonwealth's contribution was to be $26.5 million while the ACT put forward $36.75 million.
The spokesman said the ACT government remained committed to the project, which would support the suburbs in Ginninderry and the Molonglo Valley.
"One of our major projects to support the capacity on our road network for our growing population involves duplicating William Hovell Drive from John Gorton Drive to Drake Brockman Drive," the spokesman said.
"This will include an upgrade to the intersection with Drake Brockman Drive and building a new nearly seven-kilometre off-road shared path providing a new cycle link to the city."
The territory government still expects the road project to be completed by the end of 2026, but the timeline would be finalised once a contractor is selected through a tender process.
"We anticipate the construction tender being released around the fourth quarter of 2023," the spokesman said.
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ACT Labor promised before the 2016 election to fund design work for a William Hovell Drive duplication.
The then deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, announced $26.5 million in federal funding for the duplication project in May 2021.
Planning and environmental approvals are still being assessed for the project.
The Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate in April refused an application made under freedom of information laws for all cost-benefit analyses of road duplication or expansion projects in the ACT in the decade to 2023.
The directorate advised the applicant the information was considered to be subject to cabinet confidentiality.
"The disclosure of this information would therefore prejudice the deliberative functions of cabinet. I am satisfied that this information is of a kind that is taken to be contrary to the public interest," the directorate's information officer wrote.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
