Roof underway at Sports Park

A significant milestone for the grandstand at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park has been reached with the roof construction getting underway.

The roof will take eight weeks to erect and will be completed by mid March.

The 2500 seated grandstand spans 96 metres in length and 13.6m high and is set to be ready by July 2010.

With all 14 of the pre-cast support columns in place, the roof framing will be lifted into place in 7.3 metre wide, 21.2 metre long sections – each weighing approx 8.3 tonne. Each of the roof sections is made from pipe purlins that will span between steel rafters, with all of the purlins and rafters fabricated at Patton Engineering’s workshop. On site, the roof structure will be lifted into place using mobile cranes.

One of the difficult parts that the site riggers will face will be the actual erection of the rafter system. With minimal connection tolerances between the steel rafters and concrete pre-cast feature columns, it has been extremely important to ensure the manufacture of the rafters is as per the engineers requirements.

With these complex pre-cast concrete columns resembling a runners leg, the curved grandstand will be aesthetically pleasing upon completion.

Gemco Construction Ltd is the lead contractor on this $5 million project, with Patton Engineering providing all of the structural steelwork, and metalwork.