The end date for an irrigation upgrade at Harcourt in Victoria has been moved back.

Coliban Water says the upgrades now will not be operational until next year.

The Harcourt Rural Modernisation Project has had its share of delays, which saw the water authority cut ties with the original contractor Redline in June, seizing control of the $40 million upgrade.

This ended a long-running dispute over the pipeline's design..

Coliban managing director Jeff Rigby has told ABC reporters that the authority was preparing to engage new contractors and suppliers, and finally finish the project.

“We're moving into a time of the year sort of towards the late spring, summer period, when we would be looking at commencing construction, so we'd be allowing construction over the summer, autumn period and again the testing and commissioning work to be done after that,” he said.

“We have paid all monies that were owed to Redline as assessed under the contract for the works or the extent of the works that they had constructed during their time on the project.”