Internal and external design teams have been working behind the scenes identifying and overcoming issues which will be remedied by the creation of internal walkways, disability access to existing changerooms, fire ratings, wheelchair access and viewing platforms and emergency access points.

The works were revealed to Albury councillors on Monday night with council confirming the $800,000 will be covered as a “contingency” within the budget rather than another cost blowout.

They have been added to a tender already consisting of the main grandstand upgrade and extension with a further 300 undercover seats, coaches boxes, a parking area at the corner of Centaur Road and Hanna Street and amenities building for the additional playing field created behind the main oval.

The project was initially budgeted at $9.5 million, but suffered a major cost blowout of $3.2 million when unsuitable soil base material on the secondary sportsfield was detected.

A $3.14 million NSW Government grant was the catalyst for the main grandstand extension incorporating the extra seating.

The federal government was the initial funding partner secured by council in 2015 with a $4 million contribution, but ratepayers are bankrolling the majority of the project to the tune of around $10 million.

Albury Council leisure facilities team leader Michael Stanton confirmed the compliance assessments had highlighted the need for extra work.

“Our contract design team has done some further investigation and sought some internal and external advice around compliance,” he said.

“There have been a number of reports, audits and also design work done for this to come up with some additional elements.

The mega-tender for the Lavington Sportsground works will be released next month and after the 28-day application period they will be assessed during December-January and short-listed candidates brought back to council for a decision in the first week of February.

The best case scenario is the successful tenderer will be onsite in March with an anticipated construction time of 12-18 months translating to a mid-2020 finish.

Mr Stanton outlined a future stage to include demolition of an existing house on the corner of Hanna and Pearsall streets, netball facility upgrades, ticket box makeovers and installation of a larger scoreboard for the main oval.

The existing scoreboard will be relocated to the new playing arena which will have grass planted next month and be ready for competition some stage next year.