An unprecedented rise in construction costs has driven the price of the 12 Apostles Trail project to come in at $12.2 million, nearly twice the original estimation.
The figure was disclosed during Corangamite Shire Council's monthly meeting on Tuesday night, wherein director of works and services Brooke Love stated increased costs of materials, associated with supply chain constraints and sharp increases in fuel and operational costs had led to the current price tag.
"The project is within budget but the total cost increased from the original estimated of just under $7m to just over $12m with the state government contributing $8.6m and council contributing nearly $3m to the project," she said.
Ms Love said the delivery timeline had also been pushed back to mid-year, but works on the final 1.5km of the trail was underway.
"The project's timeline has been pushed out a bit, we had some delays last year with the weather and the funding," she said.
"The last package of works was in excess of our budget. The council and the state government had a number of conversations to try and resolve the balance of shortfalls so we could get the product delivered to the design standard we wanted and visitors would expect, so we were able to resolve that but as a consequence the project timeline was pushed out.
"At this stage it's anticipated to be complete by July 2023."
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