ALBURY’S art gallery redevelopment will be over-budget and completed later than the forecast date in June.
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A 5 per cent contingency on the original tendered amount of $8.3 million is close to exhausted with a revised opening date of late July confirmed by Albury Council.
The total project was budgeted at $10.5 million with more than $1.6 million spent before construction started more than a year ago, including $764,000 on design costs.
Cost overruns to date are $324,000.
Contractors Zauner Construction have encountered a succession of unscheduled works as part of the redevelopment of the former town hall building and Burrows House.
More recent issues have included an extra cost for installing high voltage electrical service, poor foundation material in a specific spot that increased the scope of the earthworks, the replacement of lighting tracks originally planned to be retained and renovation of the town hall roof sheeting and spire which contained asbestos and were found to be unstable.
Mayor Kevin Mack said the cost variations were not uncommon in such projects.
Cr Mack said the changes had not been identified in the original independent engineers’ building dilapidation report or the asbestos report commissioned before work began.
“The unexpected additional works have added to the timeframe for the project with completion of construction still expected in late July,” he said.
“Currently the project is reaching the final stages and there is unlikely to be further changes to the timeframe.
“The scale of the building is now very visible and the glass facade on Dean Street provides a glimpse of what will be a stunning street frontage.
“It is not uncommon for variations in excess of 10 per cent in older building conversions.
“The council’s total capital works program including the gallery is likely to be under budget with a large number of major tendered projects being well under budget to date.
“We’ve also been successful in achieving unbudgeted grants of $280,000 additional income towards capital works, exhibitions and programs.”
The council contribution had almost doubled to nearly $7 million after an anticipated $3.5 million wasn’t forthcoming from the NSW government.
Art gallery funding for Albury has failed to raise a mention in the lead-up to the NSW election on Saturday from either the incumbent Coalition member, Greg Aplin or Labor candidate, Ross Jackson.
