BY SARAH BARONOWSKI
Major works to Watt Street in Newcastle are being delayed for another fortnight after storm water drains and unexpected substructures were found underneath the road.
Council is currently working to upgrade the city's oldest road and prepare it for the upcoming V8 Supercars Race in November.
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Work on Watt Street will continue until mid-September
[Image: Newcastle Herald] |
Event Manager for Newcastle 500, Kurt Sakzewski says the complications were discovered last weekend during the digging process.
"We found that once we started digging that there were areas of this upgrade that weren't what we expected and that even included a storm water line that actually rose up higher than expected," he said.
"That's resulted in some additional engineering work that needs to be done and to actually implement that engineering plan, we're going to need a bit more time to do that properly."
The change means plans to re-route bus services from Hunter Street to King Street will be set back until September 10.
However Newcastle Council CEO, Jeremy Bath says the delays will have absolutely no effect on the Supercars Race or the Light Rail Construction.
"The only delay that will come out of Watt Street is the completion of Watt Street resurfacing and that will be two weeks but that will have absolutely no bearing on the start or the finish of the light rail construction. So, while it is a delay for the businesses and residents that live on Watt Street, it's relatively minimal in terms of its impact on the broader community."
The delay follows one of many setbacks in recent months, including a day long power outage in July.
The works have also left a Bottle-O in Newcastle's CBD without a phone connection for 11 days because NBN technicians couldn't access the source of the problem.
Jeremy Bath says he understands if residents are frustrated by the setback but says the work is actually on track to be finished six weeks early.
"Earlier in the year we actually announced some changes in terms of traffic management that brought forward the completion of Watt Street by 8 weeks. Unfortunately, we've had to claw back 2 of those weeks [but] even though we're now going to finish Watt Street 2 weeks later than what we had been hoping to, it's still 6 weeks earlier than what we had been originally planning."
Work is now expected to be complete by mid-September.
