Businesses struggling to cope with the disruption caused by the promenades redevelopment may not be able to survive the course of its completion.

That’s the stark warning as both Douglas East MHKs this week demanded an apology from Infrastructure Minister Ray Harmer for the problems that mean the multi-million pound project is now two months behind schedule.

Mr Harmer admitted to Tynwald: ’Progress has been slower than expected and I believe the project is nine-10 weeks behind schedule.’

The delay was down to ’many inter-related factors’, he said, but insisted the government had adopted the right approach and would make up the lost time.

Newly laid coloured concrete in the rail corridor has cracked and it has not been possible to know where all the old underground services are as records do not exist. Trial holes had to be dug to find them.

A 400m section of promenade has been fenced off between Switzerland Road and Palace View Terrace which the Minister said had not been intended.

But Tynwald heard that the government and Douglas Corporation could not even reach an agreement on rates rebates to help the businesses. The Minister admitted more needed to be done to help traders who have already faced months of disruption.

Chris Robertshaw (Douglas East) hit out at the ’confusion’ and ’mismanagement’ and argued some of the problems should have been anticipated. He accused the DoI of over-stretching itself in trying to do the project within two years.

Mr Robertshaw called for an apology to businesses in ’dire difficulty’ and warned the Minister ’could well find a number of businesses down there are finished before he has’.

Mr Harmer acknowledged the disruption but said: ’This is a complicated project. There will be disruption. We are behind. We intend to recover that time.

’We need to show mettle. We need to show resolve. When we make a decision like this there will always be disruption. There will always be issues faced. It is our job to resolve those.’

This led Mr Robertshaw’s constituency colleague Clare Bettison to demand: ’In the absence of an apology to the businesses from the Minister, I wonder if he could look at more practical support?’

She said that businesses had been told Treasury and Douglas Corporation could not agree a rates rebate.

Mr Harmer, who will be quizzed over problems with the Promenades project alongside DoI chief executive Nick Black at a Tynwald scrutiny committee hearing tomorrow (Friday), made clear his contrition.

’Don’t get me wrong, I apologise for any disruption on the promenade.’

He said the government had ’not had the most positive response from the Corporation’ over rates rebates but pledged to work with businesses to ’get through that’.

Mr Harmer outlined some of the problems that had contributed to delays.

They included that current underground service pipes for the likes of water and electricity, could not be removed until the new services were in place, which meant that new services could not be laid in the same place as current cables. The discovery of existing works in unexpected places had meant some major redesigns were necessary.

’We have always expected the unexpected, it is just the quantity we have had over the last few weeks,’ said Mr Harmer.

Little progress had been made on the ’rail corridor’ since the TT, he said, due to two ’significant technical problems’.

Cracking was spotted in the new concrete, necessitating a new method of construction. The affected concrete won’t be replaced but will be monitored. On top of that, the running of the horse trams on the new section of rail revealed the noise level to be louder than expected, requiring ’mitigation action’.

Mr Harmer claimed ’significant progress’ on the overall scheme had been made since his last update to Tynwald in April. This included the first part of the rail corridor being completed and work having now restarted, while road construction had begun at both ends of the prom.

The 400m section of fencing would be removed in two locations and will be taken down in stages as work progresses, said the Minister.

Manx Utilities had deployed extra resources to help with the problems, while more highways engineers had been assigned.

’When finished the Douglas promenade will be once again an incredible asset,’ Mr Harmer insisted.