Cost of North Sydney Olympic Pool rises to $122 million

Delays, cost overruns and legal disputes between North Sydney Council and the construction company managing the rebuilding of the North Sydney Olympic Pool have seen the rebuilding of the landmark facility reach a likely final project cost of $122 million.

With builders Icon Constructions set to hand the project over to the Council in November, recent media reports have outlined how the cost of the project has nearly doubled from its original estimate.

Closed in February 2021 with an anticipated reopening in November 2022, the renovation, first budgeted at $28 million, then $57 million at the time when building work commenced, will have taken five years to come to realisation when the project is completed - putting North Sydney Council $56 million in debt.

Speaking about the project this week, North Sydney Mayor, Zoe Baker told the ABC "it didn't need to happen.

"A much more modest development could have occurred here."

Mayor Baker, who as a councillor voted against the pool redevelopment, noted "just in the last three years we've had to defer, each year, $12 million on capital works on council assets."

With the Council this year trying to find $6 million in savings, Mayor Baker added "the council agreed very reluctantly to ticket access for New Year's Eve and Blues Point Reserve, and that's in order to find $300,000 to offset the cost of delivery of New Year's Eve."

The redevelopment was championed by then-mayor Jilly Gibson, who retired last year.

Jessica Keen is the sole remaining councillor who voted for the redevelopment.

Telling the ABC that council staff made a business case for the pool, which she approved in good faith, she recalls "I voted for a $60 million pool, not $122 million. There is a vast difference in that budget.

"In terms of what went wrong, there's been many variations, rain days, COVID. You couldn't foresee this."

An independent review of the project by accounting firm PWC found that the problems started even before work commenced, identifying problems including .

• A hastily signed contract awarded before designs had been finalised

• Failure to investigate 'latent' problems at the site, like contaminated soil

• Separate design and construction contracts complicating the build

• No contingency for COVID or wet weather delays

The builder, Icon, says the council's design team has made hundreds of changes to the project, blaming the council for the failure of structural steel in the new indoor pool building, atop the rebuilt grandstand. That steel had to be pulled down and replaced.

Icon and the council are also in a legal dispute over $28 million in cost overruns.

Image: Design concept for the North Sydney Olympic Pool.