A management shake-up is planned for the $78 million combined Police and Court building in Hamilton which experts say is months behind schedule.

Government is blaming much of the delay on a faulty geological survey which underestimated the amount of hard rock, and is now considering seeking compensation from the Canadian firm responsible.

Works and Engineering consultant Julian Hall, who said he was intimately involved with the project, stated: "The Ministry is not changing the construction manager. It is and will remain Landmark/Lisgar Construction Ltd.

"There will be some organisational change in terms of the operational management of the project. But they are totally within the scope of the arrangements that have existed in the contract."

He would not say why changes were needed but said a statement would be coming from the Ministry within days. "There was considerable delay in the excavation and foundation stages as a result of what turns out to have been a faulty geological survey which was given a long time ago in relation to the project.

"There was considerably more hard rock than was anticipated by the survey. The report showed a lot more soil than hard rock.

"This has had a knock-on effect. So while there has been delay – much of that, if not most of it, is attributed to what I know to be a false geological survey. "And as we speak I am instructed to explore the prospects of approaching the surveyors, a Canadian company, to establish whether they might accept liability for any damage caused by it."

Probed on whether the finish date was still realistic he said: "Don't hold me to this because there are many months left in the construction work, but despite the delay there are still grounds for optimism that the project will come in on time and even under budget for various reasons."

In March Government said the project, which had risen by $3 million to $78 million, would be ready by September 2010.

Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess said $66 million was for construction of the building, another $6.9 million was for a construction manager fee, and $5.1 million was built-in for unforeseen changes.

And Mr. Hall said yesterday that design simplifications had been made to speed the project along, with Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess keen to make sure projects came in on time and, when possible, under budget.

Mr. Hall also denied that Correia Construction would be involved in managing the project.

This was also refuted by building boss Dennis Correia who explained: "We are doing some steel erection and we have been working with them in contractual stuff, bidding on certain works that are there."

But he denied taking a substantial role in moving the project forward.

Asked if the project was going well he said: "It's behind schedule as far as I know, by about four months.

"They had some foundation issues early on and I think they encountered a lot of hard rock which kind of put them behind schedule with excavation. I believe they are starting to catch up now with the foundations.

"They weren't getting much help with other contractors so they asked us to bid on certain areas of backfill, steel erection and transport of materials as they bring stuff in.

"We have been working with them on doing that."

Mr. Correia said his firm's bid to put in the steel structure, at around $680,000, was the lowest of five or six tenders and work should start this week. Mr. Correia also said he had rented some machines to Lisgar.

Sources within the building industry have expressed concern at the progress of the building which began at the same time as the multi-storey Powerhouse building going up on Par-la-Ville Road which has its structure in place.

Planning permission for the new court and Police complex was originally approved in principle in February 2001 and construction finally began in December 2007. Located at the corner of Church Street, Court Street and Victoria Street, it will feature four courtrooms on the second floor, plus a family court on the third.

Local firm Landmark Construction, set up in 2001, won the contract for the multi-million-dollar project after teaming up with Canadian company Lisgar.

Ten firms had expressed an interest in bidding for the project and five were shortlisted and invited to submit bids, with Landmark beating two rivals.

Landmark/Lisgar were made responsible for the construction work and management of the construction schedule, the sub-contractors, the construction site and the final construction product.

Government hoped contractors left out of previous Government contracts would get a piece of the action under this arrangement. Landmark/Lisgar agreed to finish the job for a guaranteed maximum price, with a bonus if they brought in the job for less.