Work at Bledisloe Park, home to cricket and football in Pukekohe, is progressing, with drainage and irrigation installed, and sand carpeting and turf installation taking place.
The foundations for new lighting are also complete and, despite COVID- restrictions, work at the park has gone ahead in a way that has allowed cricket to be played, minimising disruption for the Metro Cricket Club based at the park.
With the lighting towers to be raised, booster pumps to be installed, new turf to grow-in and goal posts to be set up, work should be completed in time for the Pukekohe Football Club to return for the winter code.
Franklin Local Board chair Andy Baker says improvements at the park, at nearby Growers Stadium, and at Te Puru in Beachlands-Maraetai, will increase usable hours at the sites.
“Growing populations have put pressure on facilities. The lighting changes will allow the parks to be used more often and for longer, with irrigation and sand-carpeting making them better equipped to cope with winter rain.”
He says the board is committed to having a healthy community that’s able to stay active.
“Sport brings many benefits, not only physically, but in terms of building community. We want that to continue, so we have to make sure our facilities are fit for purpose.”
Upgrading existing facilities is part of a long-term approach to making the most of Franklin’s current sporting grounds.
When completed the most visible change will be the fixed light towers along the Harris Street side of the park and non-permanent towers in the centre, sited so they can be removed in summer when lighting isn’t needed, and to provide the space for cricket.
“Achieving anything at the moment comes with added challenges but the people involved in the project have done, and continue to do, a terrific job,” Baker says.
“The sports clubs involved have been excellent to work with too, accepting that a little bit of disruption now is going to deliver big benefits going forward.”
The top surface was recently sprayed to prepare for new grass. Couch has come through, but turf experts say that’s natural in summer and more will be planted because its wear tolerance makes it excellent for sports fields.
In dry periods it requires much less water than a cool-season grass such as rye, which is to be over-sown at the end of the project leading into winter months as the couch goes dormant.
