More expensive than planned | August 16, 2024
The municipal council has approved a credit increase of 400,000 francs, bringing the total amount to 3.3 million francs. The reason for the additional costs is additional coordination costs and early ecological measures. You can read the other brief messages from the Bern municipal council here.
The development of the gasworks site is more expensive for taxpayers than previously thought.Photo: Keystone
To complete the work up to and including the rezoning and upzoning of the gasworks site, the municipal council has approved a credit increase of 2.9 million by 400,000 to 3.3 million francs from the fund for land and housing policy, as it wrote in a statement. The funds allocated in 2017 are not sufficient, as it was not foreseeable that the site development would have to be coordinated with a temporary school building and gymnasium.
This led to additional costs in the preparation of the indicative project and to the early planning and implementation of ecological replacement measures, it continues. With the renovation of the gas boiler, another construction project was started that requires a high level of coordination with the site development. The next step in the development of the gasworks is the public publication of the zone with planning requirements (ZPP).
Lory sports field: renovation planned
The municipal council has adopted a new property strategy for the Lory sports field and decided to include the renovation project in the city’s investment planning again. It is planned to build a replacement building for the existing changing room building. The grass field is also to be renovated, a lighting system installed and the fence replaced. After the project has been developed and the loan approved, the work can be implemented from 2026 according to the current planning status.
The municipal council had originally decided not to build a replacement building at the Lory sports field in the last package of measures to improve the budget in 2021. By reviewing its savings decision, the municipal council is complying with the demands of a postulate passed by the city council in December 2022.
Geo-information system: Loan requested for continuation until 2027
The city of Bern operates a comprehensive geographic information system (GIS-Bern). This is used daily by many of the city’s departments to collect and manage their geodata. Spatial analyses and graphical evaluations are used to create a basis for decisions on complex, location-specific issues. GIS-Bern consists of the central GIS database and the GIS servers, the geoportal for obtaining geodata and services, the applications for the public (city map and 3D viewer) and central specialist applications.
They are supplemented by decentralized geo-specialist applications in individual departments. To ensure that the municipal GIS infrastructure can continue to be used and maintained in the future, the municipal council is requesting a commitment credit of CHF 735,960 (annual costs of CHF 245,320) from the city council for the extension of the existing maintenance contract with the companies VertiGIS and ESRI Switzerland from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2027.
