A TUMULTUOUS fortnight at Lavington has continued with tenders for the second and third stages of the sportsground's redevelopment coming back more than $2 million above what Albury Council had planned for.
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Two weeks after the contractor appointed for stage one of the project, Depan Group, went into voluntary liquidation, tendered costs for stages 2 and 3a of the project came back at between $10.07 million and $10.16 million.
Albury City general manager Frank Zaknich said initial analysis estimated the cost of the works would be $8.01 million.
The sportsground redevelopment at Lavington has already encountered numerous hurdles including the discovery of unsuitable soil on the new sportsfield area which led to a $3.2 million blowout of work on stage one, which cost $5.7 million in total.
Albury Council officers have recommended councillors "accept one of the tenders based on assessment of the options" at Monday night's meeting.
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Other options to be considered by councillors will be not accepting a tender and redesigning the grandstand while calling for fresh tenders, entering into negotiations with other tenderers and scrapping the project altogether.
Albury-Wodonga creditors stand to lose $153,000 due to the collapse of Melbourne-based Depan Group, which had only been in existence for two years when it was awarded the $2.7 million job with its tender $472,000 cheaper than the next highest bidder, Border company Joss Construction.
Ten unsecured creditors in Albury are owed $70,000, eight in Lavington also have $70,000 due, and three in Wodonga are $13,000 short, liquidator Anne Marie Barley told The Border Mail earlier this month.
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