On last night’s interview on The Bolt Report, I questioned how Melbourne could possibly squeeze in an extra 3.4 million people in 35 years (the current projection) without crush-loading living standards, given it took Melbourne roughly 200 years to reach 3.4 million people (and build-up the current infrastructure base):
I also noted that the cost of infrastructure projects in Sydney and Melbourne will continue to spiral as long as these cities grow by 90,000 to 100,000-plus people a year, primarily via mass immigration. Why? Because in already built-out cities like Sydney and Melbourne, the cost of retrofitting new infrastructure to accommodate greater population densities is prohibitively expensive because of the need for land buy-backs, tunnelling, as well as disruptions to existing infrastructure. These are basic dis-economies of scale.
Today, we have received yet another example of these dis-economies of scale in action, with the announced 26 kilometre North East Link project to cost an insane $16.5 billion, due to the need for expensive land buy-backs and tunneling. From The ABC:
The route for Melbourne’s $16.5 billion ‘missing road link’ has been unveiled by the Victorian Government, with homes and businesses to be acquired to make way for the 26 kilometre project.
The North-East Link will be built between the Eastern Freeway and the Ring Road at Greensborough, through Bulleen and Banyule, under the plan confirmed by Premier Daniel Andrews on ABC Radio Melbourne.
It will include widening the Eastern Freeway from Springvale Rd to Chandler Highway.
There will be some compulsory acquisitions, with affected residents and businesses currently being notified.
The project will create 10,000 jobs, the Government said.
The link will include a 5 kilometre tunnel in a bid to minimise environmental and community impacts, Mr Andrews said.
The tunnel will begin at Bulleen Rd and surface near Lower Plenty Rd…
The new section of road running north from the Eastern Freeway to Greensborough will be tolled.
Again, with Melbourne in 2017 projected to add the equivalent population of Melbourne in 2001 in only 35-years, where will all the infrastructure come from? And who will pay?
This is the threshold issue that our ‘Big Australia’ policy makers refuse to address.
