Request lodged for additional $1.6m as project goes over budget
BURDEKIN Shire Council has revealed that the multi-staged strategic infrastructure solution to accommodate the loss of water supply production bores in the Nelson’s Lagoon borefield is $1.6m over budget.
The council has approved a number of tenders for the fabrication and erection of a 10 megalitre reservoir in Ayr and related infrastructure.
The council’s Infrastructure, Planning and Environmental Services director Nick Wellwood said the decision to award the tenders was important for the resilience and augmentation of the water supply for Ayr.
“It provides a huge 10 megalitre reservoir which will give us storage capacity, not only for day-to-day use, but also for use in natural disasters,” Mr Wellwood said.
“Currently in the Covid marketplace there has been very large increases in steel, and other building costs.
“Normally if it was over budget I wouldn’t be happy about it, however I think it is a really good result for the team, notwithstanding the over-budget amount.
“It was $1.612m over budget and we owe that to the amount of steel in our steel reservoirs and also the pipelines that really affected the marketplace at the moment.
“The council teams work really hard to get a result as close as possible to our budget.”
The entire Ayr Water Supply Infrastructure Solution has been peer reviewed by the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.
Financial assessment of tenders received under
TBSC/21/012 Fabrication and Erection of Ayr 10ML Reservoir and Related Infrastructure was determined to be $8,071,956.27.
This figure includes works totalling $1,149,820.59 for items such as project management, detail design costs, procurement of the ultraviolet disinfection unit, tree removal, site clearing and a $450,000 allowance for contingency.
A Variation Request is being lodged with the state government for the additional $1,612,156.27.
The council received a $10m Special Purpose Grant from the Department of Local Government, Racing and Multicultural Affairs under the Local Government Grants and Subsidies Program to undertake the design and construction of the Ayr Water Supply Infrastructure (Stage 2) Upgrade Program.