WORK is well underway on the new indoor stadium, despite setbacks with weather. PHOTO: WAITOMO DISTRICT COUNCIL
CONSTRUCTION of Te Kūiti’s new indoor sports stadium is beginning to move at pace now the roof is on and weather will have less impact. The site wasn’t spared by recent heavy rain, Waitomo District Council project director Greg Boyle said at a recent council meeting. “There was quite a lot of surface flooding around the site last week, exacerbated of course by what we know about the stormwater network in Te Kūiti in general, it has minimum capacity – and of course the downstream effect of that is you get some of that overland flow running across the stadium site, the high school site that has an associated effect on the sewerage network,” he said. Work on options for upgrading WDC’s wastewater and stormwater networks to accommodate the additional discharges from the stadium were well advanced, he said. “So there have been some issues around that, but despite all that the contractor is only two to three weeks behind programme, has a roof over the entire structure now, only base layer over playing court area but it still has a cover.” They weren’t far from having a complete shell and the contractor would be able to accelerate progress, Greg said. “Potentially at the rate things are moving we could be completed in the next 10 weeks,” Greg said. By the end of September expenditure on the project will have tipped past 70% of the total cost, which will trigger the Ministry of Education’s first installment. “So, [we are] looking forward to that. And that will help with the cash flow obviously.” Installation of internal building services, namely heating and ventilation, electricity, security and plumbing has commenced. A plan for cultural artwork was being costed. Additional funding will be needed to implement the proposed artwork including signage for the naming of the building. Discussions on possible opportunities for funding have been taken up with the Board of Trustees. To the end of August $5,677,645 has been spent on the stadium. The district council had received $3,361,702 of the budgeted $7,062,432 external funding. The MOE contribution is 70% of the development agreement budget of $8.552m which is $5.986m. This is payable once the August progress claim has been lodged. The Game on Charitable Trust has $75,000 of general fundraising to complete the funding required for the fit out.
