The timeline for developing a new drinking water supply from Lake Dunstan has been pushed back to allow more detailed investigation into the proposal.
The Central Otago District Council (CODC) three waters infrastructure committee heard at its meeting yesterday that the initial timeline for the $8.6 million project was unrealistic.
CODC infrastructure services executive manager Julie Muir said the project - to construct a new bore near the Clyde Dam for Alexandra and Clyde's water supply - was initially scheduled to be completed by June 2018, but that was ''overly optimistic''.
More time was needed to investigate things such as the Lake Dunstan water source, computer modelling of Clyde and Alexandra's water networks, and pipelines that would be needed for the project.
More detailed investigations should allow a better price to be secured for the project, and a more realistic timeframe would allow more people to tender for phases of the project, Ms Muir said.
The design, seeking and awarding of tenders and construction of the project had been due to be completed by June 2018, but has now been pushed back to November 2019.
Cr Martin McPherson said there might be a level of frustration in the community about the delays, but Cr Neil Gillespie said the reality of large projects was they took time and it was important they were done properly.
Tenders for the design of the project are due to be advertised next month.
