While project leader the Otago Regional Council will foot more than half of the extra $900,000 bill, the Dunedin City Council will pay for the rest.
A $4.4 million budget was set for the hub when project details were announced last July.
A report to the regional council this week puts the current cost at $5.3 million and says "additional costs will continue to be incurred''.
The project will create a bus network hub in Great King St between Moray Pl and St Andrew St.
Part of the added spending comes from "revised carriageway construction'' due
to unforeseen ground conditions.
An extra $200,000 was also incurred when construction stopped for six weeks over December and January.
The regional council cited the need to ease disruption for retailers over the shopping period for the stoppage.
The city council's $440,000 cost comes from the need to change the layout of water mains to be easily accessed in future.
The underground water main layout was not as expected, which caused issues for construction.
The report also outlines two incidents whereby electrical cables were compromised which created a risk of "electrocution''.
It said additional precautions had been been undertaken and "incident investigations were underway''.
The regional council was unable to respond to questions yesterday, including whether anyone was harmed in the incidents.
The project completion has been revised several times.
It is set to be finished late next month and be operational in early March.
The hub will include 10 bus bays, electronic timetables showing bus times, shelters, public toilets and a cafe kiosk.
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Comments
The $200k additional cost due to Xmas break affecting retailers indicates a lack of foresight on the budget estimators part. The absence of a Forecast Cost to Completion in the article indicates either poor reporting or yet another council project out of control, or both.
"Otago Regional Council will foot more than half of the extra $900,000 bill, the Dunedin City Council will pay for the rest"....
In other words, the Dunedin ratepayer will ultimately foot the bill.
Both these councils seem completely out of their depth, these days. One shambles after another.....
How does this happen? the Otago Regional Council would have put out for , Tenders the document would have been itemised what was required, either the Otago Regional Council would have provided the drawings of what they wanted or Companies would have provided drawings and costings for the bus hub. The Otago Regional Council tenders board would have met and decided what the wanted to go with. what design or cost. A company would have been awarded the tender, the total cost of the companies tender would have had a contingency amount for unknowns. Sorry the company should have to pay the full cost, or if it was itemised they will not pay fro drains, road painting, lampposts seating etc that's fine, it it isn't in the contract then the company pays. if the contingency $$ where not used it becomes a bonus payment for that companies staff. If the Otago Regional Council does a redesign they pay for the extra costings. No way should rate payers be paying again, if it wasn't water tight then the original approver /sign off in council is out of a job.- happens way to much with these clown
I wonder if a way to undertake projects like this with greater financial prudence would be to complete a small bit at a time and see how it goes and adjust future plans as necessary and then cautiously continue. Councils go in 'big plan up front' and 'boots and all' because there are no adverse consequences whatsoever to the decision makers if things do not go according to plan. And it's usually 'when', rather than 'if' because Murphy's Law rules.
Spending on a dinosaur project. Dunedinites do not want or need buses- just see all the empty buses as proof. Both the DCC and ORC are loose canons with OUR money.
This unnecessary project, forced on the city's residents by the ORC, has been an embarrassing shambles from start to finish. Why they were ever given an entire block by the DCC is a mystery to me, and probably to many others. If they wanted a bus hub, they should have bought the land needed for that and left the streets alone. Now it's costing DCC ratepayers extra, on top of what it's cost the poor retailers in that street so far. Incompetent project management and then some.
Way too much money for a project that nobody wanted. It's in the middle of everything, but close to nothing, it will cause traffic issues in both George and Princes streets with buses waiting to turn and it will add time to all bus routes.
A pointless exercise for no obvious gain.