THE cost of ongoing roadworks at South Road have blown out by almost $900,000.
The original budget of $260,000 to $270,000 is now sitting at $871,000, with an additional estimated $95,000 this financial year to complete the roadworks to specification.
Mayor Marcus Blackie said the roadworks were significantly underestimated and underscoped.
The South Road roadworks project started before Mr Blackie was elected as a councillor and subsequently Mayor.
Mr Blackie said it appears that despite internal council operational and councillor reporting the project has not had oversight, transparency and accountability.
At the last ordinary council meeting Cr Ian Allan said there is an issue that when there is a larger or ongoing project, exceeding a year –
as in this case around three years, the council operates on a yearly budget and capital works projects look at one year at a time.
“King Island Council has indeed encountered significant unforeseen challenges refurbishing and resealing South Road,” Mr Blackie said.
“Council recently conducted a dedicated workshop to harvest the lessons learnt from this longer-than-expected project, in order to improve our internal project management processes and staff training.
“As Mayor the buck stops with me and if anyone goes under the bus for the team it is me but as a small council with the right intentions, we will always aim to redeem ourselves to the ratepayers,” Mr Blackie said.
“While we will accept fair criticism for schedule and cost overruns it first needs to be put into perspective.
“This arterial is the most heavily trafficked year-round and usually the most popular route to Grassy, with better visibility, especially for trucks.
“This South Road section is also subject to significant water flows during winter which create disproportionate wear and tear. Gravel shortages and quality issues also contributed to the schedule overrun.
“Unfortunately for us South Road is the responsibility of our council and not State Growth and in certain areas is up to 8m in width,” he said.
“Therefore, the council has had to cover a rolling refurbishment of this road with our own finite works resources that ended up being spread over four financial years to a current total of $871,000.
“The original budget for this work four years ago assumed all could be achieved during a single summer work period.”