Orange City Council has announced the next phase of the Orange Regional Sports Precinct and Parklands project, which would include the completion of the eight multipurpose fields and work on the rectangular stadium.
Council CEO David Waddell is pleased the project is entering this next stage.
ON A ROLL: Member for Orange Phil Donato, Orange Mayor Tony Mileto and Deputy Mayor Tammy Greenhalgh roll out some turf for one of the wickets at the sports precinct.
"We thank the NSW Government for its support to-date and the $59.5 million funding towards the project. Council is well placed to steer the exciting project to a successful completion with its internal project management office responsible for this task," Mr Waddell said.
The next stages of the project will include installing drainage, irrigation and grassing for the eight multipurpose fields, as well as development applications lodged for the rectangular stadium, amenities, power and the athletics precinct. Tender documents will also be prepared to construct the project in stages.
Mr Waddell joined Orange Mayor Tony Mileto and Member for Orange Phil Donato on site after the cricket pitches were laid.
Cr Mileto said there was still a lot of work to be completed but the community would see significant progress over the coming months.
"We have the skills and the resources to make this work and deliver one of the best sporting precincts in regional NSW. That is our focus," Cr Mileto said.
"We will keep passing the milestones. Once the pitch work is complete, we will start preparing to turf the whole area. The first step involves spreading 28,000 tonnes of sand across the site. The contractor has sourced this specialty sand from a Central West quarry."
A development application for the rectangular stadium component is expected be lodged by Council before Christmas.
Mr Donato said sporting facilities were key infrastructure for the continued prosperity and health of regional NSW communities.
"I can't wait to see the first balls being bowled by the young girls and boys in Orange. There are some hard yards ahead but when you look around the site you can start to feel how good this will be. Like the rest of the Orange community, I want to see progress and it's great news we will see it ramp up over the next six months," Mr Donato said
The laying of the pitch is a specialised process that includes timber edging, a drainage layer, a geofabric layer which is the topped with cricket wicket clay soil and Santa Ana Couch turf. The wickets will then go into a maintenance period which consists of watering, rolling the turf to compact it, and fertility and pest management until it becomes a playable surface.
Over the coming weeks the community will start to see sand being spread over the playing surfaces. It is then compacted and levelled across all fields evenly. The turf is laid on top of the sand which creates a good drainage system allowing the capture of run-off to the 16 kilometres of installed drainage pipes.
Council has engaged Neverstop Water Group to complete the current phase of the project which includes, field drainage, irrigation, installation of supporting infrastructure, construction and establishment of the 8 multipurpose fields and 3 turf wickets.
Neverstop Director Renni Pitkanen said the company had recently completed similar projects for Bayside Council, Canterbury Bankstown Council, Hills Shire Council and Willoughby Council.
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Orange City Council to deliver this world class facility for the community of Orange to utilise for decades to come," he said.
