Over half of Sarnia's water and sewer projects underway this year are significantly over schedule.
City staff is providing council with an update on the 2022 capital projects Monday afternoon.
The report includes budget and schedule updates and says five of nine water and sewer projects are delayed.
Mayor Mike Bradley said the issue is not specific to Sarnia.
"It's been a difficult couple of years for any city in North America trying to plan to spend capital funds to get the projects on budget, on time, especially with the legionary supply chain issues," said Bradley. "So, that's been part of the struggle here."
Plank Road reconstruction, water main replacements, pumping station improvements and work at the Bright's Grove Sewage Treatment Facility and Wastewater Pollution Control Centre have been delayed or deferred to 2023.
"I think the staff here have handled it as well as you could, given the different factors that we do not control, trying to move these projects forward. They're all necessary infrastructure projects. They will happen, they may cost a bit more and they may be delayed slightly -- as we've gone through with the Plank Road project -- but they will happen."
Bradley said the city faces a lot of competition with other municipalities and the private sector to get the jobs done.
"There's a lot of different reasons. A lot of it has to do with what we've gone through with COVID, supply chain issues that are now an epidemic everywhere and just dealing with contracts and contracts coming back in higher than predicted."
Bradley said having an adequate number of staff to carry out the projects and coping with Canada's limited window of time to do outdoor work -- because of the seasons and weather -- are other challenges.
"There could be impacts on 2023 projects, depending on what council approves in the capital budget. But, we can work our way through that. If we have to bring in people on a temporary basis to manage those projects, but they are viable projects."
