A cost blowout has resulted in a two-year delay for the Pomingalarna multisport cycling complex project, which was supposed to be completed by 2020.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wagga City Council is currently working on stage one of the project, since its initial $9.2 million budget was not enough to pay for stages two and three.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Mayor Greg Conkey said the project had proved far more expensive than anticipated, which had forced council to rethink its plans and push back the date of construction.
"We did go out to tender and the tenders came back far higher than we initially thought, and so we had workshops and discussions about where we should go," Councillor Conkey said.
"It came in well and truly over budget, so we had a choice of doing an inferior job for the whole lot, or whether we could break it into stages and do each stage properly.
"We could have done the whole lot, but we would have had to compromise and we didn't want to compromise."
A council spokesman said they could not divulge how much over-budget the initial quotes were, saying that information was confidential.
"Information about tenders received cannot be released as this is commercial in confidence and is therefore dealt with in the confidential section of council meetings," the spokesman said.
"Practical completion for the current project is forecast for the end of this calendar year."
However, the current project only covers stage one of the development, with council seeking further grant funding from the state government to finish stages two and three.
Stage one covers the velodrome, the community centre building, light towers and some, but not all, of the main cycle tracks.
If further funding is secured from the government, they plan to build a BMX Track, a third loop of the criterium track, a children's playground, and additional signage and landscaping.
Wagga Cycling Club's Cameron Oke said cyclists did not particularly mind the wait, saying they were simply grateful to have a new facility on the way.
"Whether or not it's this year or next year, it's wonderful. We don't want to put any extra pressure on [the contractor] or the council - they've been absolutely fantastic throughout this whole process."
Councillor Paul Funnell said council had bitten off more than it could chew, severely underestimating the cost of getting the cycling complex project completed.
"As I've often said about council, we don't seem to be able to estimate what our projects are going to cost correctly," Cr Funnell said.
"I've seen it time and time and time again. We just don't have the ability and the skillsets in the organisation to say: 'here's what we want to build and here's a reasonable estimate of what it's going to cost,' and then we end up with blowouts."
About $6.9 million government funding for the project was announced by NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian in 2018 in the lead-up to the Wagga byelection.
At the time she said the project would be finished by 2020, however construction only began in October of 2020.
Council came up with a revised deadline of May 2021 for Stage 1, however it was later pushed back to early 2022, before this week being revised to the end of 2021.
The original idea was lobbied for by Wagga's five cycling clubs: Wagga Cycling Club, Tolland Cycle Club, Mountain Bike Wagga, Bicycle Wagga and Wagga Triathlon Club.
Cr Conkey said when the full project was complete it would be a state-of-the-art facility, quite possibly the best in all of regional Australia.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters