NEW ORLEANS — For roughly three hours Tuesday, members of the New Orleans City Council grilled the Sewerage and Water Board.
One topic of discussion was the roughly $30 million substation project that the SWBNO now says it needs $21 million to finish.
“This project is probably the most important project for the City of New Orleans going forward to make sure that we secure power generation so that we can drain our streets when it floods, but the frustration we have as a council is we are repeatedly called upon to drop what we’re doing to give you that help," Council At-Large JP Morrell said.
Councilmember At-Large JP Morrell called it a '21 million-dollar oopsie.'
The project in question is part of the West Power Complex. The substation is supposed to provide a reliable source of electricity to city drainage pumps by the 2025 hurricane season.
SWBNO Supt. Steve Nelson told the council the additional funding is needed because SWBNO only had one bidder who is taking on a risky timeline and complex project, and the price went up.
“It is a fairly short and aggressive timeline as it has to be," Nelson said.
SWBNO Executive Director Ghassan Korban chalked up five of the additional $21 million to an oversight.
“The scope of the changed, we added items, and we didn’t adjust the estimate. So, flat out an oversight by the team," Korban said.
Budget Committee Chairman, Joe Giarrusso III, pressed SWBNO as to how the situation got here and wants proof, the utility won't need millions later.
“We’ve got to get this thing stood up and that’s why I was so hard Lily about asking how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again," Giarrusso said.
If approved, the administration is able to immediately provide $8 million and the SWBNO would likely have to figure out how to fund the additional $13 million until the city can pay them back this summer, Giarrusso said.
“The bottom line is we don’t really have much of a choice. We can’t wait until later. We can’t delay this project," Giarrusso said.
The council will vote on whether to approve the additional funding at its April 4th council meeting.
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