Rising costs hit Exeter museum revamp

ONE of Exeter's biggest building projects is massively over budget and running an estimated six months behind schedule, the Echo can reveal.

While the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Queen Street was sinking slowly on its foundations, the price of refurbishing soared.

The work was set to cost £15.5m — but it is now more than £3m over budget. It will not meet its planned re-opening date of spring next year.

Defects in the old building's foundations — laid on a near-1,000-year-old ditch which is deeper than first thought — are being blamed for the increased cost, now put at £18.5m.

The project received £9.5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the city council is contributing £8m. A further £1m has been raised from other external sources, and the fund-raising campaign continues.

The museum closed to the public in December 2007 for the project. A city council spokesman said: "The scheme is on its revised budget, although now somewhat behind schedule as a result of the discovery of serious deficiencies in the foundations of the building at the rear.

"Although project managers knew that this part of the Victorian building had been erected directly on an in-filled Norman ditch, and had taken precautions to stabilise the ground, the ditch is deeper than the preliminary tests had shown, and the foundations flimsy."

He added: "With the building slowly sinking for over 100 years, there are also consequent problems with the roof and walls, which have had to be supported and in some cases rebuilt. With our consultant design team and contractor, we've been working to solve this problem since last winter and have resolved most of the issues, but this has left the project several months behind."

Councillor Kevin Mitchell, lead councillor for environment and leisure, said: "Our committees have been monitoring the project from the beginning. The external design team, along with our in-house client team, is dealing with all the problems as effectively as possible.

"Although we built in a sizeable contingency to deal with exactly the issues we have found, it is the delays on site while new foundations are put in which are giving us the problem.

"Councillors will be given a guided tour of the site next Tuesday to see how things are moving on."

When completed the museum will feature new display galleries and exhibitions, modern amenities, and a new entrance from the gardens at the back of the building.