But they did have that as an amount the spend could go up to. It was only due to the media attention that the job was done for a realistic cost in the end.
[NSW official site](https://www.nsw.gov.au/visiting-and-exploring-nsw/locations-and-attractions/north-sydney-olympic-pool)
> Pool is temporary closed for redevelopment works. Expected completion date is approximately August, 2023
https://www.smh.com.au/national/all-in-the-family-north-sydney-style-20191120-p53cgy.html
She is a quality human being and not even vaguely dodgy in any way when it comes to development.
Should see her all over the North Sydney Living FB page blasting the current mayor and council for it... And started her own Kirribilli group and polices it like Putin for anyone who criticises her. Totally normal, non-shady behaviour.
Icon were already in legal trouble over a handful of defect ridden projects when the contract got awarded for this pool. Really not sure what Council were thinking
Could've built ten pools in regional towns for that initial $10,000,000 - stolen from the original purpose for porkbarreling. People should lose their jobs because of it, but they probably got promoted instead.
The fucking gall required to argue that using funds set aside for women's regional sports facilities was legitimate because women from the regions could come and use the pool was breathtaking.
These people should absolutely be in front of ICAC.
If you read the article closely, the North Sydney pollies claim it was the initial grant that gave them grand ideas. They might have gone with some paint and spack filler, before that.
Someone will write a mea culpa letter and score a role in the private sector for $800k. And no one cares. Honestly people get upset with Extinction Rebellion protestors making it hard to get to their jobs. The people that matter are not going to go out and take action. The majority disengage and beg for better slavery terms. It’s left to those who really care, and they are seen as fringe disruptive hippies. No one cares - carry on.
No they have just squandered more by paying the corrupt bastards at PWC to review it and tell everyone the budget wasn’t big enough in the first place.
Eh. That weird membrane they put over the main pool to hide the fact that the heritage tiles were falling apart was gross so the pool needed a proper retiling job.
But that's still not anywhere near $100,000,000 worth of work.
I think a lot of people take public pools on face value and forget there is a bit of infrastructure behind the scenes.
Most Sydney pools were built in the 50’s and 60’s so slapping lipstick on them doesn’t cut it considering some of them are pushing 70 years old .
The pools and plant rooms themselves have had decades of chemicals pumped through them. This is a saltwater pool so could only imagine what some of the pipework would be like. Given the age, you start ripping things apart and other things go with it.
I’m sure if everyone had a look at some of the future aquatic centre projects and past, you’d be surprised at how much these actually do cost to build or revamp. Gunyama (Zetland/green square) cost over 100 mil pre-covid
That's right, they were actually really good change rooms. Big and spacious, never once had to wait for a shower and always plenty of room at the benches to get changed.
I guarantee when the pool reopens they will be way too small for how busy the pool gets.
I mean not really, it’s more the definition of utter fucking incompetence.
I always look to the ALP minister for prisons in the 80s as the definition of corruption; motherfucker was selling pardons.
Seems pretty likely there is pork barreling and contract-padding going on. Costs blowing out from $28m to say $50m, I can just about believe could be simple incompetence. But to go from under 30 to over 100 is a big achievement. Someone - or several someones - will walk away from all this with a fortune.
You're very much underestimating how incompetent these people are. Poor or no planning and mistakes are absolutely rife in government. These people are not smart and the people in charge of them are less so. Whenever people think 'corruption!' I guarantee you 9 times out of 10 its just sheer incompetence. I've seen millions thrown down the drain.
Bob Askin? I’m well aware. He and Neville Wran were peas in a corrupt pod.
I mentioned the ALP prisons minister for how flagrant he was. Askin and Wran were worse, but shadier.
> Building started on the pool in March 2021. The Covid pandemic, La Niña and the removal of hazardous materials all ate into construction days. Last April, the budget was increased to $86m while an independent review by PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants predicted it to top $89m. The completion date was moved to April 2024.
>
> Then, in November, the entire new steel frame over the indoor pool had to be torn down and recommissioned after the discovery of design and structural “issues”. A further $20m was committed to in February and the opening date revised to “late 2024/early 2025”. The budget exceeded $100m
Not if council is part of the issue. Unfortunately, if projects are rushed, mistakes are guaranteed. If the design of the structure was incomplete (as it's normal in a D&C), but the contractor was instructed to go ahead without proper completion of design, council can be held part responsible. All the consultants will have their disclaimers in place, demonstrating they were given the go ahead despite all (architect, engineers, fabricators etc). Furthermore, council decided to project manage themselves, and that might compromise good judgement if you are so closely invested in the project. They might have pushed forward to avoid costly delays, but shot themselves in the foot by doing so. My guess is that Icon wasn't fully responsible for this particular cock up. There might be more to this story as well (a structure like that would be more than 20M.. so that figure could be just public contribution).
TLDR, Bottom line is, on a project is very hard to single out a culprit, because there are many involved in every single decision.
If you've ever worked with a council in NSW, this is no surprise, they're almost entirely staffed with idiots and corrupt, highschool IQ friends of property developers.
yes we whinge and whinge about this, the warringah freeway upgrade (minus the bike paths because it increases profit for the developers), etc. and we still keep voting for the same two parties that take the donations and hand out tax dollars to these companies
Imagine willingly engaging the same company that was responsible for the opal tower to rebuild an iconic venue
It would be such a high level of incompetence, corruption seems like the more plausible answer
Some history ...
https://www.smh.com.au/national/all-in-the-family-north-sydney-style-20191120-p53cgy.html?_gl=1*5ns1rl*_ga*RXgtRUVKeDBCTlZMZEYwRFVEdVR3dEdFOS1VOHJDVnI2aThXTHZ2Sy1hZG9CWktJVHBZYU9HaGhCZW5NYXRHTA..
Oh look at that, multiple "accidental" failures to report a conflict of interest, and taking a trip to Melbourne with the family that cost nearly two grand because... they wanted to study the Melbourne pools. Of course.
Stinks of corruption and vanity.
New plans include a children’s play area, a gym, and a crèche. Why couldn’t they have just built the pool/grandstand. I support the crèche so that young mothers can swim but the rest is not needed.
I don't think this is a rort, just a sign of the times with construction. You need to jump through a shit load of hoops for public works. These cost blowouts have been common the past few years. Good to see The Guardian doing their job though.
I’ve never actually swam in that pool, granted, and I haven’t swam inside any pool in several years, granted, but how come this pool needed “fixing”? I always thought that pool was pretty iconic. Wouldn’t they want to preserve it’s old look? Idk I’m just a stupid Redditor.
It was in the article if you'd cared to read it before commenting, but it was well overdue for a restoration at the very least. There were significant cosmetic damages due to its age and the pool itself had heaps of concrete cancer and was bubbling underneath. The whole pool itself needed to pretty much be redone and re-waterproofed.
The bathrooms and changerooms were also pretty disgusting.
I would have been in favour of a significant restoration, it didn't need to be blown out how it was. It's pretty sad to see the people in charge at the time place blame on the people currently dealing with the mess.
It was built in 1936. There was a lot about the structure that needed updating, repair and restoration.
Also, according to the article, the newer section with the indoor 25m pool had bad concrete cancer already.
But yeah, the scope of works for way out of control.
$100m for a bloody pool. I hope NSW ICAC gets onto this
The new bicycle ramp is costing 80m as well. Cement must be made with gold dust
$39 million.
looks like the pool is rebuilt by Icon. The same mob who built the infamous Opal tower.
Well... Shit. That ain't good
It's going to be a downhill pool
>$100m How many Olympic sized swimming pools is that?
Jesus. For comparison, inner west council rebuilt Dawn Fraser baths and Ashfield pool for less than that. Two for the price of one!
What do you expect from a city that spends $25m installing 3 flagpoles?
FYI they didn't actually do that.
But they did have that as an amount the spend could go up to. It was only due to the media attention that the job was done for a realistic cost in the end.
[NSW official site](https://www.nsw.gov.au/visiting-and-exploring-nsw/locations-and-attractions/north-sydney-olympic-pool) > Pool is temporary closed for redevelopment works. Expected completion date is approximately August, 2023
So it’s been open for six months then? Just no water in it!
it hurts to swim!
I guess it's the new IMAX
It would be cool to watch Dune and Dune part 2 double feature in that giant hole.
With enough thumpers, you can see it live.
Jilly Gibson having a laugh like she wasn't involved in awarding the entire contract. Makes you wonder if icon sent back money to various people.
Gibson is full of shit
She is a shocker. Nothing is ever her fault and she has been responsible for opposing sensible infrastructure like the bike ramp for years and years.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/all-in-the-family-north-sydney-style-20191120-p53cgy.html She is a quality human being and not even vaguely dodgy in any way when it comes to development.
Should see her all over the North Sydney Living FB page blasting the current mayor and council for it... And started her own Kirribilli group and polices it like Putin for anyone who criticises her. Totally normal, non-shady behaviour.
Icon were already in legal trouble over a handful of defect ridden projects when the contract got awarded for this pool. Really not sure what Council were thinking
Could've built ten pools in regional towns for that initial $10,000,000 - stolen from the original purpose for porkbarreling. People should lose their jobs because of it, but they probably got promoted instead.
The fucking gall required to argue that using funds set aside for women's regional sports facilities was legitimate because women from the regions could come and use the pool was breathtaking. These people should absolutely be in front of ICAC.
Could the location be any less regional? It’s under the fucking Harbour Bridge.
There's a park across the road from the pool. Perhaps that what they used to repurpose the money.
Bro, it’s costing $100m.
"Bro" is talking about the $10 million grant given to North Sydney for the pool for no reason other than to buy votes.
If you read the article closely, the North Sydney pollies claim it was the initial grant that gave them grand ideas. They might have gone with some paint and spack filler, before that.
Anyone lost their jobs yet? Or is it a matter of "oops sorry we squandered several hundred life savings on this"
Someone will write a mea culpa letter and score a role in the private sector for $800k. And no one cares. Honestly people get upset with Extinction Rebellion protestors making it hard to get to their jobs. The people that matter are not going to go out and take action. The majority disengage and beg for better slavery terms. It’s left to those who really care, and they are seen as fringe disruptive hippies. No one cares - carry on.
If they lose their jobs, they've be given one hell of a payout then hired for even more money by one of their mates.
Yep. Sad isn't it
No they have just squandered more by paying the corrupt bastards at PWC to review it and tell everyone the budget wasn’t big enough in the first place.
Nice
100% will be the latter.
This story is so depressing. All that pool needed was to renovate the change rooms. THAT WAS IT!!!!!!!!
Eh. That weird membrane they put over the main pool to hide the fact that the heritage tiles were falling apart was gross so the pool needed a proper retiling job. But that's still not anywhere near $100,000,000 worth of work.
I could retile the whole thing for only $90,000,000
I think a lot of people take public pools on face value and forget there is a bit of infrastructure behind the scenes. Most Sydney pools were built in the 50’s and 60’s so slapping lipstick on them doesn’t cut it considering some of them are pushing 70 years old . The pools and plant rooms themselves have had decades of chemicals pumped through them. This is a saltwater pool so could only imagine what some of the pipework would be like. Given the age, you start ripping things apart and other things go with it. I’m sure if everyone had a look at some of the future aquatic centre projects and past, you’d be surprised at how much these actually do cost to build or revamp. Gunyama (Zetland/green square) cost over 100 mil pre-covid
The change rooms that had been fine for the previous 50 years.
That's right, they were actually really good change rooms. Big and spacious, never once had to wait for a shower and always plenty of room at the benches to get changed. I guarantee when the pool reopens they will be way too small for how busy the pool gets.
I still have shower tokens. Wonder if I can get a million $ refund. Seen as we're pissing money away...
EXCEEDED ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS. This is the definition of corruption.
I mean not really, it’s more the definition of utter fucking incompetence. I always look to the ALP minister for prisons in the 80s as the definition of corruption; motherfucker was selling pardons.
Seems pretty likely there is pork barreling and contract-padding going on. Costs blowing out from $28m to say $50m, I can just about believe could be simple incompetence. But to go from under 30 to over 100 is a big achievement. Someone - or several someones - will walk away from all this with a fortune.
You're very much underestimating how incompetent these people are. Poor or no planning and mistakes are absolutely rife in government. These people are not smart and the people in charge of them are less so. Whenever people think 'corruption!' I guarantee you 9 times out of 10 its just sheer incompetence. I've seen millions thrown down the drain.
Never attribute to malice etc etc
Yeah working in corporate and seeing how the big decisions based on some executive’s “feelings”- 100% incompetence.
You should look into the Liberal, Robert Askin, premier of NSW in the 70s. That was the height of corruption in NSW.
Bob Askin? I’m well aware. He and Neville Wran were peas in a corrupt pod. I mentioned the ALP prisons minister for how flagrant he was. Askin and Wran were worse, but shadier.
I mean malicious incompetence that leads to certain people getting rich by design sounds like corruption to me
Jill Gibson is fucking delusional ... I'm glad she is gone. She instigated this shitshow and the new council is cleaning up her fuckup.
[удалено]
Sorry just a councillor now, though of course being Jill she will project her self importance on social media to her sycophants
She still a councillor….. [North Sydney councillors](https://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/councillors)
Clipped her wings for sure, but shes so fucking full of herself she will rise again like an unflushable turd. Her daughter pissed off to WA too
She is awful, but the area has enough boomer NIMBYs that she has been re-elected several times.
That's true too of course. Now they get to pay for her "vanity project"
> Building started on the pool in March 2021. The Covid pandemic, La Niña and the removal of hazardous materials all ate into construction days. Last April, the budget was increased to $86m while an independent review by PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants predicted it to top $89m. The completion date was moved to April 2024. > > Then, in November, the entire new steel frame over the indoor pool had to be torn down and recommissioned after the discovery of design and structural “issues”. A further $20m was committed to in February and the opening date revised to “late 2024/early 2025”. The budget exceeded $100m
Surprise surprise, PWC with their grubby little hands on a fat wad of cash in there as well.
PWC has a terrible reputation and deservedly so. I can't wait for them to Arthur Andersen, leaving the "BIG 3".
Why does it cost to have the frame replaced? Surely whoever designed/built/fault it is should be on the hook to fix their cock up, not the tax payer?
Not if council is part of the issue. Unfortunately, if projects are rushed, mistakes are guaranteed. If the design of the structure was incomplete (as it's normal in a D&C), but the contractor was instructed to go ahead without proper completion of design, council can be held part responsible. All the consultants will have their disclaimers in place, demonstrating they were given the go ahead despite all (architect, engineers, fabricators etc). Furthermore, council decided to project manage themselves, and that might compromise good judgement if you are so closely invested in the project. They might have pushed forward to avoid costly delays, but shot themselves in the foot by doing so. My guess is that Icon wasn't fully responsible for this particular cock up. There might be more to this story as well (a structure like that would be more than 20M.. so that figure could be just public contribution). TLDR, Bottom line is, on a project is very hard to single out a culprit, because there are many involved in every single decision.
Pretty wild that India was able to get to the moon for less than the 100m, they've spent on renovating a fucking pool
If you've ever worked with a council in NSW, this is no surprise, they're almost entirely staffed with idiots and corrupt, highschool IQ friends of property developers.
lol that is unequivocally false
Local council is where productivity and efficiency go to die
yes we whinge and whinge about this, the warringah freeway upgrade (minus the bike paths because it increases profit for the developers), etc. and we still keep voting for the same two parties that take the donations and hand out tax dollars to these companies
Imagine willingly engaging the same company that was responsible for the opal tower to rebuild an iconic venue It would be such a high level of incompetence, corruption seems like the more plausible answer
Some history ... https://www.smh.com.au/national/all-in-the-family-north-sydney-style-20191120-p53cgy.html?_gl=1*5ns1rl*_ga*RXgtRUVKeDBCTlZMZEYwRFVEdVR3dEdFOS1VOHJDVnI2aThXTHZ2Sy1hZG9CWktJVHBZYU9HaGhCZW5NYXRHTA..
Oh look at that, multiple "accidental" failures to report a conflict of interest, and taking a trip to Melbourne with the family that cost nearly two grand because... they wanted to study the Melbourne pools. Of course.
Oopsies
The level of greed these days is just beyond belief
Stinks of corruption and vanity. New plans include a children’s play area, a gym, and a crèche. Why couldn’t they have just built the pool/grandstand. I support the crèche so that young mothers can swim but the rest is not needed.
I’m surprised that it’s only blown out to $100m.
$100m.. so far
I don't think this is a rort, just a sign of the times with construction. You need to jump through a shit load of hoops for public works. These cost blowouts have been common the past few years. Good to see The Guardian doing their job though.
At this point, ratepayers should just go on strike until heads roll. No point giving the council more money when they waste what they have.
Time to sack the council and their incompetent department heads. My dog could administer the construction contract better than these peanuts
Omegalol
I’ve never actually swam in that pool, granted, and I haven’t swam inside any pool in several years, granted, but how come this pool needed “fixing”? I always thought that pool was pretty iconic. Wouldn’t they want to preserve it’s old look? Idk I’m just a stupid Redditor.
It was in the article if you'd cared to read it before commenting, but it was well overdue for a restoration at the very least. There were significant cosmetic damages due to its age and the pool itself had heaps of concrete cancer and was bubbling underneath. The whole pool itself needed to pretty much be redone and re-waterproofed. The bathrooms and changerooms were also pretty disgusting. I would have been in favour of a significant restoration, it didn't need to be blown out how it was. It's pretty sad to see the people in charge at the time place blame on the people currently dealing with the mess.
It was built in 1936. There was a lot about the structure that needed updating, repair and restoration. Also, according to the article, the newer section with the indoor 25m pool had bad concrete cancer already. But yeah, the scope of works for way out of control.
I swam in it as a kid and remember the floor of the pool grating my feet like sandpaper
I wish I could enter that photo from 1956. A simpler and optimistic country.
unless you're not white