The Federal Government’s Snowy 2.0 project is facing a significant cost blowout and delay from the original estimate, detailed in a feasibility study a little over a year ago.
The major Perth-based construction and engineering firm Clough confirmed it had been awarded a $5.1 billion contract alongside Italian partner, Salini Impregilo, 150 per cent higher than the original $2 billion estimate made by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in early 2017.
Veteran energy analyst and principal at consultancy ITK, David Leitch, believes $5.1 billion may be on the conservative side, saying, “these contracts generally included a 10 per cent contingency clause, which unsurprisingly get used and there’ll be other costs for things like preliminary works”.