City Infrastructure with Craig Lawrence

<p>A lot of the infrastructure assets relevant to our daily lives, such as roads, bridges, and parks, are provided by city or municipal governments. In this episode, we ask the question: how should we assess the economic viability of city infrastructure projects? To answer this question, we’ve invited Craig Lawrence, Managing Director of Lytton Advisory, back on to the program. <a href="https://lyttonadvisory.com.au/" target="_blank">Lytton Advisory</a> is an Australian professional services firm specialising in infrastructure economics and decision making.*</p><p>Use these (approximate) timestamps to jump right to the highlights:</p><ul><li>1:00 – conversation starts with host Gene Tunny asking Craig about a recent post (A <a href="https://lyttonadvisory.com.au/2020/01/01/a-7-crossing/" target="_blank">$7 Crossing</a>) he wrote about the economic viability of Brisbane City Council’s proposed $190 million Kangaroo Point to Brisbane City pedestrian bridge</li><li>12:00 – discussion of external benefits (or externalities) and wider economic benefits relevant in assessment of city infrastructure projects</li><li>18:00 – discussion of agglomeration effects and benefits of active transport</li><li>23:30 – Craig delivers his assessment of the economic viability of the Brisbane City to Kangaroo Point pedestrian bridge – “at the moment, there's not enough evidence on the benefit side, to be able to justify the project “</li><li>26:00 – further discussion of wider economic benefits – Craig notes a rule of thumb is that they should only be 15-20% on top of private benefits</li><li>32:00 – Gene commences conversation with Craig about Brisbane City Council’s un-costed redevelopment of Victoria Park Golf Course into a public park and how one might assess its economic viability</li><li>43:20 – beginning of discussion on Cross River Rail, a controversial new subway system in Brisbane which was originally costed at $5 billion but may end up costing $12 billion, a mega project which Craig has previously been sceptical about (<a h