MCG arena works begin

Austadiums • Tuesday 28th September 2004

Three days after Port Adelaide's premiership win over Brisbane, at the home of Australian football, the MCG turf was ripped up by heavy machinery to begin a five-stage, two-year project that will transform the venue into the athletics arena and main stadium for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Tony Ware, the MCC's arenas manager, considers it the biggest surface works performed at the ground in its 150 years. "Ultimately it will be, because we're building the track works in as well as what we're doing with the field," Ware said.

"It'll never be the same again," said Ware in classic understatement as he outlined the arena renovation and track installation plans.

First, to comply with specifications for the athletics competition, the track must be laid on a completely flat surface.

"That means we need to take the crown off the ground which in turn means we must remove the current concrete slab under the centre wicket area," said Tony.

"Then we have to lay the track base and channelling to a depth which entails replacing the entire irrigation and drainage system. Next step is to pour the new centre wicket slab and later install the portable pitches.

Finally, we'll re-establish the arena's sand-based profile and relay the entire surface with Motz Stabiliser turf."

At this point Tony notes with mock satisfaction that Stage 1 of the project is already completed. "The turf 's ready at HG's farm at Alexandra, maturing nicely,"
he said.

But there is still much to do. The centre wicket slabbing removed and repoured 70cm lower than before is 700 square metres of 20cm-deep concrete. Laying the track base involves 8000 square metres of crushed rock and there will be about seven kilometres of drainage pipes laid, plus irrigation piping for nearly 100 sprinkler points around the ground.

When all the sub-surface work is finished, a completely new sand profile will be installed and 20,000 square metres of Motz turf laid in readiness for the 2004 Boxing Day Test between Australia and Pakistan and other fixtures over summer.

This exercise will be the equivalent of the massive 1992 reconstruction of the ground, and then some.

The 2005 football season proceeds normally but in the spring of that year the field will be "topped" to expose the athletics track, the long jump run-up and so on.

"About mid-December next year, it will look like an athletics field," Ware said.

Then another layer of sandfill and a new layer of turf will be placed over the athletics field in time for the 2005 Boxing Day Test.

When the cricket season ends, those layers will be removed, new turf will be laid around the track-and-field facilities, and, in late-February, 2006, the MCG will be ready for the Commonwealth Games.

MCG

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Three days after Port Adelaide's premiership win over Brisbane, at the home of Australian football, the MCG turf was ripped up by heavy machinery to begin a five-stage, two-year project that will transform the venue into the athletics arena and main stadium for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
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