The Murray Road staircase project will be more than $19,000 over budget by the time the project is completed later this year, district officials said this week.
The staircase, which leads to Rotary Pier and Boardwalk, collapsed last June.
Originally, $25,000 was budgeted to repair the stairs in 2017, but that was upped to $74,000 after the collapse.
District staff tendered the original contract but not for the required three weeks, which did not sit well with council members earlier this year.
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Sooke councillors re-tendered the project in January in the hope bids would come in lower.
Coun. Kerrie Reay voted against the re-tendering.
Following the re-tender only one bid was received from Luxton Construction of Vancouver for $72,300. The first project bid by Rolling Tides Construction was for $74,000, and $19,000 worth of work was completed before the project was stopped by the district.
“I am troubled with the cost … Here we are paying another $20,000 for a set of stairs,” Reay said.
Coun. Rick Kasper was hopeful some of the costs of previously purchased building materials could be re-couped from Rolling Tides Construction.
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