Leaving the EU gave them a very big funding problem, the final funding arrangement is not first choice but the best they could do.
I hope there is a clause in the funding deal to prevent the debt being sold on to other parties, that's what went wrong with PPI.
When I lived in Wales the old Heads of the valleys road was a big problem for industries in the old mining areas, and was restricting growth, and new industry.
Costing work like this, particularly in areas like wales, can only ever be a guessing game because of the geological conditions.
Any quotation has to be on the basis of what is known but everyone must understand there could be unknowns that are know about, and unknown unknowns, and of course these can only evaluated once they are found.
If estimates of the costs of some known unknowns are included, the chances are the project would never get off the ground.
I remember being told by the civil engineer who designed and oversaw the building of Cwmbran stadium (athletics)
They had a series of bore holes drilled on the proposed site for the stadium, collected data on old coalmines (though the stadium is in the valley bottom, the old mines tend to be in the valley sides) and underground waterways.
The bore holes revealed some rock but mostly heavy clay, almost ideal.
Work got underway, then they found an enormous cavity under the site.
The test bore holes just missed it in several places, and the tiny stream, thought to be the cause.
It took several times more than the projected cost of the stadium to fill in, and stabilise the ground, and redirect the water.
Of course in those days, no one would know what it had all cost.
But without the remedial work the site could not be used for a stadium or anything else.