Work on Kilmarnock bus station has been 'difficult' one of East Ayrshire Council's top officials has admitted.
Rumours of problems were raised by Labour councillor John McGhee at a meeting of the council's cabinet on Wednesday.
Katie Kelly, the council's depute chief executive, admitted that the work was 'complex', but insisted that the project was well on track despite the difficulties with the design of the facility, the discovery of a major IT cable at risk from the work and a change of contractor.
A redesign of retaining walls was required after the main contractor uncovered two 'unrecorded foul water manholes'.
The fibre optic cable connected council offices and there were also delays with BT carrying out vital work.
As a result, cost of the project had increased by £81,000 to £504,000.
Ms Kelly said: "There have been some difficulties there. I have been working with facilities and properties management and linking closely with Stagecoach.
"Things are on track, although we have had some difficulties in terms of water leakage into some of the buildings and some of the grounds works.
"We did have to move a major data cable that linked back to the council's IT systems, which was quite a high risk to us.
"It has been a problematic project for us. We also had to change the contractor at one stage as well.
"It has been a difficult one but we are making good progress. We have inherited the site and it is not ideal. There is a ramp that goes over the top of the building that has meant it has been a technically difficult programme."
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