A design image for the theatre,dubbed the New Performing Arts Venue,now not expected to open until mid-2024.
Department of Communities,Housing and Digital Economy director-general Clare O’Connor,whose department has responsibility for Arts Queensland,said a meeting of the inter-agency steering committee for the project was told of the new delay in June.
O’Connor said that while being awarded a 24-day extension to their contract,builders Lendlease still expected to finish in early February. Internal work would then take the “net date” for completion back to November 2023.
But she said this date did not account for future risks,delays or contingencies,and the Department of Energy and Public Works had advised the committee that “practical completion may not occur until around mid-2024”.
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“I think[that] will be more realistic,given that we’ve had two major floods and that we’ve still got to face next year’s[flood] season,” O’Connor said.
“There are some things being undertaken at the moment,including traffic rearrangements,which may help,” she said.
Parts of QPAC and other riverside cultural precinct venues suffered basement and car park water damage in March after being inundated byalmost 13 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of floodwater.