Another city council project blows its budget
An Invercargill City Council storage shed project will cost ratepayers $68,000 more than originally budgeted, with council staff saying a recommended detailed soil assessment was not carried out.
A report was presented at yesterday’s infrastructure and services meeting, which outlined the need for a further $68,000, on top of the initial $200,000 budgeted for the project.
The 15m x 25m storage building on Racecourse Rd is being built to store the city’s Christmas lights and trees. It will also be used as a workshop for parks projects, and a general storage shed.
The site was bought in 2001 and in July last year, councillors approved construction.
The ‘‘unforeseen’’ added cost was the result of 30 tonnes of contaminated soil being removed and replaced with hardfill, interim parks manager Michele Frey said.
The report to council said testing was undertaken by Southern Chemical Consultants in 2000, which indicated levels of contamination. It also recommended a further detailed assessment be carried out.
However, no further detailed assessments had been retrieved from archives, which suggested that assessment was not carried out, Frey said.
Council works and services manager Cameron McIntosh said staff had since discovered former council staff knew the soil was contaminated when it was bought.
‘‘It long pre-dates us but we now know the land was purchased at a discount because of the contamination.’’
Work on the site has been halted while the reasons for the extra costs and the amounts involved have been verified.
Council staff have recommended that construction work on the Racecourse Rd storage building start again, on the basis all materials are available and no further associated construction costs are anticipated.
The $68,000 would be found from within existing council budgets, Frey said.
Infrastructure and services chairman Lindsay Thomas said it again highlighted the need for all necessary information to be presented to council to help in making informed decisions.
The added storage shed cost has come hard on the heels of revelations of other budget blowouts at the council, including an extra $4.5 million being required on top of the $14m budgeted for the council-owned Don St commercial property development.
The blow-out came because the building ended up being built larger than initially planned, which councillors said they had not been made aware of.
City Council chief executive Clare Hadley said the Don St blowout was a result of ‘‘lapses in management and process’’.
The council also halted work on the Chinese Garden project at Queens Park after it was discovered it would cost an extra $280,000.
It is now investigating what can be completed inside the original Chinese Garden budget to see if work can restart again.