One-third of Lower Thames Crossing budget spent on planning documents
More than £450mn used for obtaining permission for road tunnel scheme
More than one-third of the £1.2bn spent on the proposed Lower Thames Crossing near London has gone towards planning applications, highlighting the costs of getting the long-awaited project off the ground.
The road and tunnel project to connect Kent and Essex has become a totem of the delays and costs that plague British infrastructure projects, which has led to planning documents that run to 359,070 pages.
More than £450mn has been spent on paperwork, including traffic modelling, economic and environmental impact assessments solely to get planning consent, according to figures obtained by the Financial Times through freedom of information requests.
National Highways said £267mn had been spent on gaining development consent orders for the project and a further £161mn on establishing the “commercial and project integration teams”.
In addition, £29mn was also spent on public and stakeholder consultations, it added, which is more than the £21.3mn spent on construction contracts for carrying out preparatory work such as trial trenches and utility removal.
Much of the rest of the £1.2bn spent has been used to purchase the land and for technical surveys required before any construction can begin.
The project, which has been beset by rising costs and delays, is expected to cost £9-£10bn by the time it opens in 2032.
There have been “significant benefits” to the project from the lengthy process — including design improvements such as new woodland, public parks, more trees and a reduced loss of housing — according to one person close to LTC, though they also admitted the figures demonstrated the costs and complexities of the planning system.
The person added the process had given a “fixed design that is less likely to overrun or find unexpected costs”, unlike projects such as HS2 high speed line or Crossrail, which has become the Elizabeth Line.
Although formal responsibility for the LTC lies with the government-owned agency National Highways, the project has its own dedicated eight-person management team and 150 full-time staff.
These include an external project manager, the US contractor Jacobs, which works alongside other consultants, including Turner and Townsend, Cowi and Arcadis, which also manage the overall scheme.
Three other project managers — Balfour Beatty, Skanska and a joint venture between Bouygues and J Murphy & Sons — each oversee construction of different sections of the project.
The LTC received planning consent last month, though the government is yet to announce how the road and tunnel will be financed. A decision is expected in June’s spending review.
The Treasury favours the “regulated asset base” model of private finance, which has been used on water projects such as the new Tideway tunnel under the river Thames, according to people with knowledge of its thinking.
This costs at least £200mn more than the cheapest model, which would see the Treasury paying for the project and then collecting future revenues from road tolls on the scheme.
Transport Action Network, a campaign group, said it would not be seeking a judicial review “despite there being good grounds, such as the out-of-date and incomplete traffic modelling justifying the scheme”.
The campaign group argued the cash would be better spent on an estimated £24bn backlog in local roads and bridge maintenance.
The findings come as the government’s national infrastructure and planning bill winds its way through parliament. Although it is seeking to speed planning decisions by reducing opportunities for legal challenges environmental groups are concerned it will erode nature and wildlife protection.
National Highways said the LTC “remains the best option for tackling the chronic congestion at Dartford and unlocking growth through a new connection between the south-east ports, the Midlands and the North”.