On November 24, the Swiss people will vote on the 2023 development program for national roads, which provides for six specific projects, including the widening of the highway between Le Vengeron and Nyon to six lanes. In the Federal Council’s brochure, all the projects, including the five in German-speaking Switzerland, are estimated at 4.9 billion francs.
This amount corresponds to estimates from the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO), which date from 2020. Since then, it seems that costs have already increased somewhat, especially for the Rhine Tunnel project in Basel. It was valued at around 1.9 billion francs and today it has risen to 2.6 billion, an increase of 700 million francs. The French-speaking project increased from 911 to 956 million francs.
With the latest revisions from OFROU, calculated by the direct.magazine site, the total costs of the six projects could rise to 5.8 billion francs, an increase of 18% compared to initial forecasts, without including VAT or the increase in prices.
By integrating these two parameters, the KTipp magazine of Wednesday October 30 reveals that the costs of highway projects would be 45% higher than expected. “Instead of the 4.9 billion announced in the voting brochure, we will need at least 7.1 billion.”
The magazine notes the same figures from OFROU on the final bill for the Rhine tunnel in Basel, which increased from 1.873 billion to 2.59 billion francs. It adds the increased amounts for the Rosenberg and Fäsenstaub tunnels in Schaffhausen of almost 140 million francs.
Finally, the cost of the projects was evaluated in 2020: “Since then, prices in civil engineering have increased by 14.3% according to the Federal Statistical Office. Which represents an additional cost of 822 million francs. On top of that, we still have to take into account VAT at 8.1%, which was not taken into account in the calculation, which is another 533 million francs more…
By adding up all these expenses, we actually arrive at an amount of more than 7 billion francs, instead of the projection of 4.9 billion, which appears in the brochure.
