Part of project pledge

documents, Wood said the baselines responded to post-Covid cost escalations. When asked specifically whether he could commit to delivering all the projects announced back in January 2020, Wood declined to answer. Instead, he said the Government was weighing up its options.

Stuff has already seen early snippets of the advice provided to Wood, in heavily redacted papers from the Ministry of Transport.

Requests to see the finished baselines have been rebuffed. One briefing warned of a ‘‘significant increase in [the] volume of property transactions required’’ by projects in the programme and said ‘‘unplanned cost increases are an emerging issue’’.

Another said Wood would be advised in March of this year about the ‘‘total set of choices or trade-offs that may be required to deliver the programme’’.

Another paper said Crown financed projects, including the upgrade programme, had ‘‘incorporated risk normally measured through separate pre-implementation steps’’. That means the Crown wore the risk of any cost overruns when it took on the projects in January, knowing the cost estimates were fairly highlevel and did not give a detailed picture of the programme. ‘‘[A]s a result, these projects may face a likelihood of increased cost and time pressures, causing possible delays and cost overruns,’’ the briefing said. Some projects are already under way.

‘‘Already 13 projects are in construction . . . like the third main rail line in Auckland and road upgrades in Hawke’s Bay, West Coast and Northland,’’ Wood said.

Other projects, including in Ashburton and Tauranga, are expected to start this year.

‘‘Already 13 projects are in construction.’’ Michael Wood

Minister of Transport