In Australia this month, Arup settled a lawsuit brought by the receivers of the Airport Link in Brisbane, agreeing to pay roughly $100 million of the $2.2 billion in damages sought by lenders for “misleading and deceptive” traffic forecasts that bankrupted the project company seven months after the toll tunnels opened.
The Arup settlement is the last of three checks totaling $420 million that will have been written by traffic consultants in Australia to compensate lenders for drastically wrong forecasts. The amount paid in to settle the Airport Link suit is far below damages claimed, but appears to be the sum of insurance and an estimate of the cash judgment above which a defendant would declare bankruptcy. Arup’s Australian revenues are reported to be around $350 million annually.