Ratepayers could foot $400K for athletics track

The Tauranga Domain athletics track looks in need of a revamp. Photo/file

Tauranga ratepayers could end up contributing nearly $400,000 to replace the artificial athletics track at The Domain after its life expectancy dropped by a third.

The predicament facing the city's athletics fraternity was revealed in a report to today's meeting of the council.

Council recreation and facilities manager Kiri Pope said it was originally expected that the track surface would last about 15 years.

While the surface had performed adequately since it was constructed in 2007-08, athletes said it was starting to harden and was no longer as resilient.

A report from Sports Surface Consultants said the hardening could be caused by general aging plus attack from UV radiation which was quite high in the Bay of Plenty.

It said the amount of wear in high stress areas like the main straight sprint lanes was possibly in excess of what could be expected from inspections and evaluations of tracks of a similar type, material, age and usage.

"In some areas, particularly around he high jump fan, the joints between the panels are starting to open."

The consultants said the surface hardened and became less comfortable as it aged. "In this respect the life expectancy of this surface is normally 10 years."

Today's meeting will consider funding half the costs of the replacement track in three years, subject to the the Tauranga Millennium Track Trust raising the rest of the $790,000.

It was proposed that a new type of track be installed at The Domain - the Polyurethane Sandwich Surface System in common use around New Zealand including Whangarei, North Harbour, Hamilton, Wanganui, Wellington, Dunedin and Invercargill.

Consultants said the Sandwich system had a number of advantages including that it was better at avoiding leg strains and other injuries. The life of the track could also be extended by seven years at about half the cost of a full replacement.

Today's meeting will also consider depreciating the track at $6000 a year to avoid a repeat of the situation where the council suddenly faced a a big replacement bill.

It was also proposed that a charging regime be introduced for athletics clubs and key users of the track in order to recover costs.

The Millennium Track Trust built the original track for $1.5m which included a council contribution of $330,000. The asphalt base would be used again for the Sandwich System.

The original decision to not depreciate the track was on the basis that future resurfacing would be funded by the athletics community, led by the trust.

Ms Pope said the trust told the council that it had no money to resurface the track. The proposed depreciation would allow the sprint track to be replaced at seven years and the full track at 14 years.