Blog Day 181 - 22 September 2020

 The ghost of a corgi went into a bar and asked for a rum and coke and the barman said "sorry we don't retail spirits here".

One of the issues with the pandemic is that we have taken our eyes off the ball of the other problems and issues of mismanagement besetting this state.  One of the issues that seems to have been put on the backburner is the budget blowout on the Westgate tunnel project.  This project was proposed to the state government by Transurban and Transurban was given the go ahead by the government without any meaningful feasibility study or competitive tendering process.

Once the contractor started digging the tunnel they discovered that the soil contamination was worse than originally planned on and it was going to cost an extra one or two billion dollars or so to get rid of this heavily contaminated soil.  (Now remember that they are digging a tunnel through an area that has been the site of heavy industry and dirty industry for close to 150 years, and they are surprised that there is contamination????).  Now they are saying that there is a further blowout in costs to the tune of a further billion dollars due to "the challenge of relocating pipes for major utilities".  Haven't they heard of "ring before you dig".  Apparently the government has an obligation to formally notify the utility companies of the "project's special status" and failed to do so therefore the utilities were not obliged to comply with the contractors requests to move the pipes etc adding to time and cost blowouts.

To cut a long and sad story short the contractors are suing Transurban for misleading or deceptive conduct and Transurban are trying to pass the extra cost onto the state government.  Remember we are talking a cost blowout of $3 billion dollars on a project that was originally going to cost $6.7 billion.

And another thing, no matter what happens we will be paying for this for years to come.  The state government did a deal with Transurban that Transurban is able to charge tolls on it's other Melbourne based toll roads for an extended period to pay for the Westgate tunnel project.  So even if you don't use the Westgate tunnel but if you use say the Tullamarine freeway you will be paying for the tunnel and for many years to come. 

A bit of a hiccough in Victorian daily infection figures with 24 reported in the last 24 hours, being an increase from 11 and 14 for the previous two days.  Lets hope it drops tomorrow.  We reported 3 more deaths in the last 24 hours.  There are 83 Victorians in hospital due to the virus with 8 in ICU and 5 on ventilators.  

The rolling 14 day average is still declining which is good news;

21/09: Metro 34.4, Regional 1.6, Total 36.0

22/09: Metro 32.8, Regional 1.6, Total 34.4

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – 2 Week Extension – Day 9

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
13/09	26,648	41	19,841	41	810	723	221	116	26	11
14/09	26,686	35	19,870	35	817	729	137	122	17	12
15/09	26,739	50	19,911	42	816	729	141	118	18	11
16/09	26,772	52	19,943	42	824	737	139	117	17	11
17/09	26,807	35	19,971	28	832	745	127	107	16	11
18/09	26,864	51	20,015	45	837	750	127	90	16	11
19/09	26,885	21	20,036	21	844	757	108	89	15	8
20/09				14			106	94	12	8
21/09	26,909	11	20,063	11	851	763	109	92	10	6
22/09	26,942	33	20,076	28	854	766	107	83	8	8

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
14/09	29,181,882	243,787	928,267	3,709
15/09	29,433,477	251,595	932,390	4,123
16/09	29,727,389	293,912	939,186	6,796
17/09	30,025,096	297,707	944,680	5,494
18/09	30,340,279	315,183	950,429	5,749
19/09	30,691,801	351,522	956,421	5,992
20/09	30,986,826	295,025	961,400	4,979
21/09	31,228,511	241,685	965,037	3,637
22/09	31,479,718	251,207	969,230	4,193

And now the stage 4 lockdown 2 week extension remembers.

Remember: to follow the legal instructions of a police officer, not to get carried away with false optimism (again), if you are going to run a road block do it when it is raining, tell the truth, don't go to any protests, avoid the City of Casey, ring before you dig, especially if it is a $7 billion project.