Board chair Leon Grice said the organisation had come up with a more affordable plan, which included refurbishing the Hillary Field Centre instead of replacing it.
“So by getting more life out of a building that didn’t need to come down, and by building in a more traditional way, we were able to get it under budget.”
Grice said redeveloping Scott Base was crucial to continuing New Zealand’s legacy in the region.
“We’ve had continuous presence there since 1957. So this project continues that legacy, and continues to support our science programme which is crucial to understanding the planet.”
The redevelopment would increase the total size of the base by about 1500 square metres.
That included a new Base Services Building, refurbishment of the Hillary Field Centre, and replacement of ageing water and power infrastructure.
Building in Antarctica was incredibly difficult, due to logistics and the weather, Grice said.
“You can build from October to February. So you have to have all of the building materials supplied the February before your October start.”
“You can’t make any mistakes in terms of what you’re building, because there’s no hardware store to pop down to and pick up an extra bag of bolts.”
Science in Antarctica was more important now than ever to help understand climate change, Grice said.
“Last year, we did all the logistics and support for a multinational science team that did a 500 metres ice claw drill… to get 20 million years of atmospheric record… so that will be an incredibly rich resource that will be studied for many many years.”
Work would start in October.