Design delays medical research centre

THE South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute has been delayed because of complications with its design.

SA Health and Medical Research Institute

THE $200 million federally-funded South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute has been delayed by almost a year because of complications with the project's design.

The new SAHMRI research centre- which is being built by the state Labor government with a federal grant - will not be completed until October, 10 months behind schedule.

And in a further setback to the flagship government project, a major building contractor working on the site was placed into administration on Friday, meaning further delays are possible.

Linear Roofing, which is one of South Australia's largest roofing contractors, has blamed weak market conditions for its collapse and the dismissal of about 50 workers.

Administrator Peter Macks said the company would finish work this week on a major city commercial development, but was withdrawing from the SAHMRI contract.

"We have closed that project, we are not continuing with that and someone else will have to take it over," Mr Macks said.

"They (Linear) have been a successful company; the problem that they have got is the lack of further work because of what is happening in the building market in South Australia."

Mr Macks said the company was seeking a deed of company arrangement for the $3m owed to creditors in an attempt to stave off liquidation.

A spokeswoman for SAHMRI said it was too early to determine the impact of the collapse of Linear on the project's timeline, but revealed the completion date had recently been pushed back to October.

"We are still in the early stages of assessing whether or not this will have a major impact, but at this stage we anticipate it will not," she said.

"The reason for the delay is because of the complexity of the facade that is going around the exterior of the building, she said.

"That has led to the push-back of the completion date, but we are now aiming for October."

Once complete, the SAHMRI will house about 600 researchers.

The state government has allocated $15m over four years in base funding with the balance of SAHMRI's funds coming from research grants, donations and intellectual property licensing.

It is being built alongside the state government's $3 billion new Royal Adelaide Hospital.

South Australian Health Minister Jack Snelling, who last month claimed the project was "on track", said the delay would not impact on the project's budget.

"SAHMRI have advised there are no cost implications," he said.