Asbestos found at Richardson Park delays upgrade, causes cost blow-out

Another Darwin project has been hit with delays because asbestos has been discovered at the site.

Another Territory infrastructure project has been hit by delays caused by asbestos remediation.

The $7.1m Richardson Park redevelopment has been set back by up to a year because asbestos was dumped on site post-Cyclone Tracy.

The NT Environmental Protection Authority announced in October 2022 asbestos material was found across about 550sq m of the Richardson Park site.

This was seven months after the NT government appointed DTA Contractors to complete the $5.8m civil works as part of the $7.1m Richardson Park redevelopment.

It emerged on Wednesday the project could be delayed by a year and there will be an associated cost blow-out.

Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler and DTA Constructions Dylan Hale at Richardson Park, where asbestos has delayed project and blown-out costs.

Builder Dylan Hale from DTA Contractors, who showed Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler around the site this week, said remediation work was expected to resume next month after the wet season pause.

“We’re at 50 per cent completion and we’re about to start up again in March,” Mr Hale said. “There’s a bit of remediation work to do and we push forward to the middle of the year and finish up then.”

The monsoonal weather since January has presented staffing challenges business owners across the Territory must overcome.

“We try and keep our locals and if they go to the shed and play cards so-be-it but we’ve got to keep them because it’s so hard to get resources, and good resources,” Mr Hale said.

Richardson Park is the latest in a string of projects delayed and subject to cost blowouts, including demolition of the Chan Building, the underground carpark at Parliament House and the kids’ playground in Larrakeyah.

Originally expected to take about six months, the quantity and spread of the asbestos found at the Richardson Park site has delayed the project by at least a year.

Richardson Park concept design. Picture supplied

The civil contract was expected to be finished by the end of 2022 and be followed by the construction of toilets, changerooms and storage spaces, which were supposed to be done in the first half of this year.

“The original was six months but it will probably go out to 18 months at the moment,” Mr Hale said.

“There were issues around asbestos on site which everyone knows, a bit of a legacy from Cyclone Tracy, a dumping ground. A bit unknown as well due to the depth and the need to remediate and make safe.”

Ms Lawler said asbestos had always been factored into project planning and more recently “buffers” around asbestos project impact had been increased.

“The reality is anywhere asbestos was buried after Cyclone Tracy is a concern and you can see the coverings here,” she said.

“I was 12-years-old when I went through Cyclone Tracy and my father had a trucking business and after Cyclone Tracy we saw how much was being put in the back of trucks and being dumped.

“Whether it’s ovals in the northern suburbs, whether it’s places like this Garramilla Boulevard, we saw it being buried at that time. I was old enough to remember it so it’s no surprise to me. “That’s part of doing business in the Territory but it's the same elsewhere in Australia as well. There’s plenty of places they had large buildings that had asbestos too.”