Suffolk County Council is set to shelve plans to build three bridges on the River Orwell in Ipswich, despite having already spent £8.3m in development costs.
Dropping the scheme also means the city will lose the promised £78m of potential Government funding allocated to the works.
A report on the Upper Orwell Crossings project to the council’s cabinet recommends stopping the project with immediate effect, on the grounds that the council has been unable to obtain the additional funding of up to £43m required.A review by Jacobs last autumn had identified a significant cost increase, after which the project was ‘paused’.
The report to councillors states: ‘The estimated cost in the Outline Business Case was £96.649m. The Jacob’s Report has confirmed that the latest estimated cost falls between the range of £121.553m to £139.785m.
'Given that the current DfT [Department for Transport] contribution is £77.546m and the Council previously committed to the DfT that it would underwrite a local contribution of £19.103m, this leaves an additional capital funding requirement of up to £43.136m.'
The main planned bridge would be cancelled outright, while the council will continue to seek funding for the two smaller bridges onto Wet Dock Island, one of which would involve the refurbishment of an existing bridge.
The report acknowledges that ‘the DfT funding of £77.546m to the project will be lost to Ipswich if the project does not proceed’.
Matthew Hicks, council leader and cabinet member for economic development and infrastructure, said: ‘We are still prepared to commit financially towards the costs of building the two smaller bridges, providing we can find significant funding partners to work with us and up to a maximum of £10.8m, which respects the overall commitment we made in 2016 towards the local contribution, less the costs incurred to date.
The council’s cabinet will consider the report next Tuesday (29 January).
