AN UPGRADE of Farrer Road could be hundreds of thousands of dollars over budget come Monday night.
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Wagga City Council will seek approval from its councillors to allocate an additional $319,069 towards the multimillion-dollar project after a number of problems altered the design scope and exhausted its contingency sum.
Councillor Paul Funnell said this request means the upgrade is more than half a million dollars over budget, which will fall back on the ratepayers to foot the bill.
There were seven issues identified during stage one that the council is asking for additional funds, including a redesign of a new culvert across Farrer Road to meet a 1-in-100-year overland flow, which will replace the deteriorating culvert of a 1-in-20-year event.
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Other issues were the removal and disposal of an unidentified asbestos cement water pipe, which the council predicts could be an ongoing problem in the next stages, as well as joining the two parts of Messenger Avenue.
"I cannot fathom how some of these errors were made given that this had been on the drawing board for years and years," Cr Funnell said.
"It is simple errors that is unprofessional and incompetent as far as I am concerned."
Cr Funnell said he had no confidence that the budget will not blow out even further in the upcoming stages, especially when the money set aside to cover any unexpected costs was already gone.
Council's senior project manager Silas Darby said the request was not about the project running over budget, rather alerting councillors to possible problems that might need extra funds.
Mr Darby said the council had investigated as best it could prior to the upgrade beginning, but problems had come up unexpectedly.
He said the councillors will also need to provide direction to council's staff on issues that might not require an immediate fix.
"I appreciate that it's frustrating for the councillors when they see this ... but the reality is we have to at least try and do the right thing when we are doing the work," he said.
In other news:
"If they don't want to do it, they don't have it. I am not dictating that they must, I'm just saying it is a good idea."
A less pressing issue will be connecting the old TAFE facility's septic system at the eastern end of Farrer Road to the waterborne sewerage.
Mr Darby said it is logical to connect the pipe now instead of postponing works for another day, which will incur a much higher cost.
"We would have to dig up a finished road and reinstate a finished road," he said.
Mr Darby said it is unlikely further funds will be required as his request anticipates any potential problems in the upcoming stages.