KITCHENER -- The cost of revamping Kitchener's Carl Zehr Square could be going up.

Kitchener council recommended moving forward with an additional $2.2 million in spending on the public square in front of city hall in a committee meeting this week. That would put the price tag on the public square at $14 million.

The largest portion of the new money will go towards a project the city was going to hold off on until later, but have now decided to do as part of the project. Officials added another $150,000 to keep working through the winter and an additional $900,000 can be filed under unexpected costs.

The project manager said construction crews were met with a few surprises along the way, including salt and water erosion that was much worse than anticipated. They also found the foundation of an old building they didn't know was there.

The city said taking care of those issues is critical to completing the project safely.

The $1.15 million being added back to the project will help avoid a second round of construction, officials said.

"We would always have had to do that work and if it's delayed, we would have had to go back in Carl Zehr Square and do that work," said Lynda Stewart, manager of projects for the City of Kitchener. "That's the other reason, is that support from downtown stakeholders would prefer to see this all done as soon as possible and avoid that second disruption."

The recommendations still need to be approved by council. If they go forward with the plan, officials said the construction will be done by August 2021.