$1.3M blow-out on borefield costs

Gosford Council has admitted to a $1.3 million blow-out in costs for its groundwater extraction project on the Peninsula.

The ground water project was recently touted as a $9.5 million project, more than 15 per cent more than the approved cost of $8.2 million in September 2006.

Responding to a question from Peninsula News, Council's Water and Sewerage Directorate Media Unit said that, due to the size of the project, project costing was likely to vary with design changes and construction contracts.

It stated: "Some of the works that have contributed to increased costs on this project include: development of detailed designs resulting in changes to cost estimates; increased costs for the Water Treatment Plant following receipt and award of Tenders in September 2006, increase in building costs to ensure that the building complied with council's development application requirements in relation to noise, increase in costs for monitoring the borefield and testing, and additional engineering costs."

The media unit stated that, overall, both Wyong and Gosford Council have spent $30 million dollars on accessing and treating groundwater across the Central Coast.

Lyle Stone, 8 May 2008