The Katherine Town Council is quietly confident the delay-plagued hot springs project will be complete by year end.
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The popular tourist spot has been a sore point in the town since it was found the original work had begun to erode and would have to be ripped up and re-done.
The $2 million upgrade, when first announced in April 2016, was initially to be completed by the end of that year, but has been blocked by high fencing since.
More recently, a contentious council decision was made to reallocate $1.5 million from the $5 million CBD Revitalisation project to the springs' fix.
Almost $400,000 of the CBD money had already been spent on contracting architects to deliver a plan for the revamp, and with the siphoning off of money to the hot springs, that upgrade money now totals just $3 million.
A council spokeswoman today said construction of the lower section of the springs was brought forward, to get work completed as fast as possible before the looming wet season sets in.
The Bureau of Meteorology's prediction of a late start to the wet, which usually sees the Katherine River rise by metres and become a rushing body of water, is in council's favour.
"Everything is going well," the council spokeswoman says.
"We are confident the works will be completed in December 2019."
Work at the hot springs stood at a standstill for about two years before construction workers were back on site in July of this year.
The construction zone has been one of constant buzz since, with workers loading lots of rocks into baskets and constructing deep footings to stabilise the eroded river bank.
The third tier on the slope is expected to be reconstructed with the addition of trees.
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