Filenews 10 October 2025 - by Ioanna Kyriakou
The contractor who undertook the construction of the new Archaeological Museum on the site of the old Nicosia hospital is claiming a five-hundred-day extension. This was reported today by the Department of Public Works during the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Transport.
It is recalled that the construction part of the contract started to be implemented on January 9, 2023 and, under normal circumstances, the project was scheduled to be delivered in July 2026, with the cost amounting to €143,924,216.
As Eva Iordanous, on behalf of Public Works, clarified, the contractor's requests are under examination and do not mean that they will be accepted in their entirety, while she assured that they will not have significant additional financial consequences. These are 20 extension requests which have to do, among other things, with weather conditions, recent concrete strikes and additional works that were not foreseen in the initial studies. The response to the contractor's requests is expected to be given around the beginning of the new year.
More specifically, according to a previous report by Fileleftheros, the requests concern, among other things, some changes (which concerned additional supports related to the static part of the building) while a limited number of days seem to be justified, in the sense that they concern the issuance of announcements by the Department of Labour Inspection for the termination of work on the construction sites due to high temperatures.
The contractor also seems to be claiming a delay time regarding concrete volumes that had been found in the subsoil during the excavations and which concerned older constructions during the British occupation. The concrete blocks had been identified at the initial stage of the project.
Ms. Iordanous, when asked about this, clarified that based on the original schedule, the buildings should now have been completed, however, she spoke of an "extremely difficult project" which presented construction difficulties due to the presence of a river at the site. However, on the part of the consortium, it was stated that the delays observed are not unjustified, pointing out that the completion time was "unrealistic from the beginning".
It was assured that all major problems have been overcome and work continues normally. In addition, it was pointed out that the two basements of the museum (warehouses and workshops), 50% of the parking space were completed and now the difficult part that is the exhibition spaces continues. In the current period, it was said, about 130 people work on the construction site (blacksmiths, masons who are engaged in masonry, technicians active in the installation of plasterboards, electricians, mechanical engineers, etc.), while this number is expected to increase to 250 in the future.
What the museum will include
The Museum, with a total area of 30,000 sq.m. (including basements), will be erected on a plot of 40,000 sq.m.
It will include permanent exhibition spaces of 5,500 sq.m. that will host around 6,500 antiquities, temporary exhibition spaces of 1,000 sq.m., educational program areas, conservation workshops of 2,000 sq.m., underground parking spaces, antiquities warehouses of 5,000 sq.m., restaurant, cafeteria, library, amphitheater, offices, shop/art shop and extensive landscaping of the outdoor areas. The landscaping projects will also include a public square with a fountain, which will mark and upgrade the new, improved image of the urban center.
It is noted that part of the underground parking lot will be used to house the Museum's warehouses, laboratories and educational programs.
After all, the parking lots will be below ground level but will be open and visible from ground floor level, so they will not be considered underground in the strict sense of the word. One of the main reasons why underground covered spaces are not formed concerns the safety of the Museum's valuable exhibits.
It is noted that the completion of the works will be followed by an 18-month period for the completion of the museographic works, including the transfer and installation of the exhibits, so the delivery of the Museum was expected to take place in 60 months, specifically in the year 2028.
