Malaysia’s Yellow Brick Roads...

Remember the Yellow Brick Road from the Wizard of Oz?
Maybe we have the equivalent of that in the road projects that have been given out without public tenders?

Some basic construction costs are provided in the chart shown above.

The tunnel in Norway is only for single-lane in two directions and was completed in 2000. According to this article,there were 5000 blasts in addition to the drilling of the tunnels and 2.5 million cubic metres of rock had to be removed.
Special lighting and air handling systems had to be installed in the tunnel.

It is interesting to note that the PORR article
mentions the Kallang Expressway as being expensive as the 9km of the total 12km consists of underground tunnels and eight interchanges. You can see the official details here.

Constructing a tunnel through mountain rock or soft clays under a river and city areas require different techniques of construction and hence it is difficult to compare costs.

But the nagging question that remains is how could Norway construct a tunnel for such a low price? Did they manage to negotiate such a low cost without a public tender?

It appears that awarding contracts without competitive bids and public tenders is a surefire way to make our road contracts all Yellow Brick Roads; ie roads paved with gold bricks all the way to the banks.




Chart: Comparative highway costs.TI info
Managed to insert a Xcel spreadsheet today.