A revamp of the city’s main street and the surrounding area is ahead of schedule and is now expected to be finished in April next year, not September.
The project is also being delivered inside its budget.
Central city plan project director Glen Hazelton told the Dunedin City Council’s infrastructure services committee meeting yesterday the revamp of the retail area was shaping up to be 85%-90% completed at Christmas, weather permitting.
Dr Hazelton said work in the Knox block of George St would finish in July, and other sites would wrap up by the end of the year.
"The programme has been built around getting out of as many blocks as we can by Christmas," Dr Hazelton said.
"By Christmas we should be out of the Golden Block [of George St], St Andrew and Hanover Sts."
Significant work in the New Edinburgh Way block of George St would be carried out before many people looked to do their Christmas shopping, he said.
"We may still be working on the road, but the idea is to pull that back so it’s not noisy work."
The committee was told in February the estimated project completion cost was just over $95 million, as well as a $10 million contingency.
The staff report for yesterday’s meeting updated this to almost $87.8 million and the contingency.
Some lessons had been applied from early work in the project, Dr Hazelton said.
Councillors congratulated staff on what had been achieved to date.
The council has said the George St upgrade was mostly driven by a need to replace ageing pipes.
Some Three Waters work had been done just in time, Dr Hazelton said.
"In some locations, we’ve had situations that even as we have taken the soil off the pipes, the weight of the soil has caused the pipes to fail."
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