Costing options & meetings regarding A82 from Tarbet to Inverarnan: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
All technical papers leading to the costing of the options for Tarbet-Inverarnan, alternatively;
The minutes/records of all research guidance (or steering group) meetings between Transport Scotland and the consultants.”
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
Please find enclosed at Annex A to this letter a technical paper summarising the calculation of costs for the options for the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan scheme during DMRB Stage 1.
Further technical information addressing your request is available at the following locations on Transport Scotland’s website:
A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan DMRB Stage 1 Environmental Assessment Part 1
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/51172/dmrb-stage-1-part-1.pdf
A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan DMRB Stage 1 Environmental Assessment Part 2
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/51173/dmrb-stage-1-part-2.pdf
A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan Stage 1 Traffic and Economic Appraisal Report
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/51174/stage-1-traffic-and-economic-analysis-report.pdf
A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan Strategic Business Case
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/51175/strategic-business-case.pdf
A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan Value for Money Workshop Report Final
https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/51176/value-for-money-workshop-report-final.pdf
As the supporting appendices to the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan Stage 1 Traffic and Economic Appraisal Report are too large to send by email these are available to view on the enclosed memory stick which forms Annex B to the letter.
Due to the size of the files we are unable to upload the documents referred to above. If you wish to consider, please contact us at the address below and we will be happy to provide.
An exception under regulation 11(2) of the EIRs (personal information) applies to some of the information contained within said appendices because it is personal data of a third party and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998. This exception is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception.
In order to assist your understanding of the information provided, we have supplied the following explanatory note.
At DMRB Stage 1, broadly defined improvement strategies are identified for a number of route corridor options. Section 3.1 of the DMRB Stage 1 report for the A82 Tarbet to Inverarnan scheme describes the three route corridor options selected for Stage 1 assessment and notes that “preliminary route alignments have been identified within each of these corridors . . . to assist with early consideration and appreciation of possible engineering issues within each corridor and also for initial cost estimating purposes.”
The outline cost estimates for the three route corridors (described in section 3.2 of the DMRB Stage 1 Report) were estimated by applying a cost rate per km which reflected the existing conditions and the anticipated engineering solution for discreet sections of each route corridor.
The rates per km were derived by considering the scheme cost for a number of similar Transport Scotland road projects. Where route corridor options included sections that would require additional engineering solutions such as the diversion of high voltage power lines or more complicated structures or tunnels etc, the cost estimate applied additional rates to those derived from the table of historic project costs.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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