What you need to know:

• Civils and electrical work hampered by wettest start to year on record.
• More rain forecast, deadline pushed back.

Rain of seemingly biblical proportions has blown out completion of the City of Sydney OOH rollout by a further three months.

The upgrade of the city’s infrastructure under its flagship OOH contract has been beset by delays from the outset, from the initially protracted City of Sydney contract award to QMS and handover from previous incumbent, JCDecaux, then by Covid disruption and related supply chain squeezes. The new completion deadline is 29 August.

“The wettest start to the year on record … has made it impossible for some works to take place such as concreting, electrical and civil works, which cannot be undertaken safely under these conditions,” said Jemma Enright, QMS General Manager, City of Sydney.

“The current forecast for more rain in the coming weeks means further delays are inevitable. As a result, we have made the difficult decision to move our go-live date back three months to ensure our network can support the expected volume and strategic needs of advertisers’ campaigns.”