Archive, Industry News

Roads Australia calls for urgency on infrastructure

Planning flexibility also needed for future transport technologies and solutions

 

Roads Australia (RA) has called for greater urgency on urban infrastructure planning and delivery, saying infrastructure delivery ‘after the fact’ won’t cut it on current population trends.

It references Infrastructure Australia’s recent Planning Liveable Cities report, which concludes infrastructure delivery is struggling to keep pace with population growth and change.

Some points from the report relevant to transport include:

  • infrastructure is not delivered overnight; large-scale transport projects can take 10 to 20 years to plan, fund, and deliver
  • existing infrastructure assets in established areas may also be ageing, and delivering one piece of infrastructure can require upgrades to others ,which adds to the cost and complexity of upgrades and limits government’s capacity to invest
  • ongoing operational and maintenance costs of infrastructure are significant and need to be better incorporated into planning.

“Over recent years, there’s been a growing recognition of the importance of integrated urban and infrastructure planning, and there’s evidence that we are getting better at it. But this latest report is a reminder that we have to improve further and faster to cope with our burgeoning population,” Roads Australia president David Stuart-Watt says.

“We’re still in catch-up mode delivering infrastructure to urban growth areas established 10 and 20 years ago. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes in the future.”


Industry greets Vic poll result as North East Link put out to tender. Read more, here


RA says while there must be a focus on planning and delivering the right infrastructure where and when required, there must be an element of foresight into future developments as well.

“We need to factor into our thinking the likely impacts of new transport technologies and solutions.

“We are on the cusp of a transport revolution, but there is still a lot of uncertainty as to how exactly it will play out.

“We must accommodate a certain amount of flexibility in our planning scenarios to ensure we can take advantage of autonomous vehicle and drone technologies, amongst others, as and when they roll out.”

 

Previous ArticleNext Article
Send this to a friend