Council gains ground in capital works catch-up

A year of hard work has paid off with Council halving its capital program carry-over on last year.

Acting CEO Martin Drydale said last year Council carried $8 million worth of capital works projects over to the new financial year, compared to $3.9 million this year.

Mr Drydale said Council had caught up considerably since de-amalgamation. 

“We started in 2014 with no designs or detailed drawings on the books, which meant a mammoth task to get that prep work done before we could even consider breaking ground. 

“Given we’ve halved the carry-over this year we have done very well to catch up in 2015/2016 and deliver almost 90% of the $35.6 million program by June 30.”

Mr Drydale said all councils carried some capital works projects over to the following year, simply because work either wasn’t completely finished or contractors were still to be paid.

“Rarely in the real world do each year’s projects all neatly finish up at close-of-business on June 30,” Mr Drydale said.

“It is normal to expect a carry-over in capital programs, as projects are not always fully finished by June 30, or we may be awaiting the final invoices from contractors, which means there is money still owing,” Mr Drydale said.

“The vast majority of those projects carried over from last year have now either been completed, or are close to completion.”

Major projects completed in 2015/16 include the $5 million Dr Pages Road upgrade, $3.1 million Munna Point bridge rehabilitation, flood mitigation projects at Tewantin and Pomona, the Cooroy RV Stopover and Cooroy-Noosa Road upgrade stage 5.

“We delivered by June 30 almost 90% of the planned $35.6 million 2015/16 program, which includes the $8 million worth of work we carried over from 2014/15.

“The focus for 2016/17 will be to ensure we have designs in the drawer ready to go from 1 July next year, to give us a greater chance of delivering the full program with even less of a carry-over,” Mr Drydale said.

24 August 2016