Plans changed for Yarrow Stadium roof
The plans for Yarrow Stadium’s contentious $70 million rebuild have changed again with the West Stand’s roof now being replaced by a fabric version of PVC.
Questions were raised about the installation of the roof after contractors failed to deliver on an earlier deadline to have it in place before the start of the national provincial rugby championship.
That left Taranaki Rugby, as a tenant of the stadium, to apologise to season ticket holders, who, along with the public, had to watch from the sidelines in an uncovered stand.
At the time of the announcement, the Taranaki Regional Council blamed bad weather for not giving contractors enough dry days to paint the stand’s supports for the old roof to be erected.
However, late last month, the council issued a release saying work had started on installing a new fabric roof, which was expected to be completed by Christmas.
Taranaki Regional Council chairperson Charlotte Littlewood hailed the work as ‘‘another milestone’’ on the ‘‘road to delivering the best regional stadium in the country.’’
When questioned about why 2250 square metres of high-spec PVC was being used on the West Stand, council director of corporate services Mike Nield said an engineering report on the previous West Stand roof found repairing it, as planned, had potential costs and risks.
‘‘Once that decision was made, we had planned to use PVC as the roof on the new East Stand will be PVC and there was the opportunity to use the same high-spec, long-lasting material and have a consistent look to the roofs on both stands,’’ he said.
While he did not answer questions about the cost of the new roof, Nield said it was expected to have a lifespan of around 50 years.
In July, former Taranaki Regional Council chairman David MacLeod said the stand’s rebuild would be delivered on budget despite the challenging construction conditions.
It followed a budget blowout on the project, which jumped from $50m to $70m and included the Government pitching in another $10m, along with an interest-free loan of up to $5m. It had already committed $20m.
The new East Stand is due to be built by 2024, although in last week’s statement, Littlewood said that could now be early 2025. That is despite the seating capacity being reduced from 4000 to 1800.
The redevelopment project was announced in 2019, after the two grandstands were declared earthquake-prone in 2017 and 2018.