Race against time!

Material arrives, National Stadium track completion set for February 25

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

It's now a race against time and all hands on deck as material for the renovation work being carried out on the new track at the National Stadium finally arrived on site yesterday afternoon, in five of the eight containers that are expected in the island.

The other three containers will arrive next week.

The containers were stripped yesterday and the installation of the synthetic track is expected to start bright and early tomorrow morning.

A second team of workers have already been drafted, at a yet to be determined cost, and will be working around the clock with the already-drafted set of workers, in an effort to meet the new deadline, which has been set to February 25, one day before the scheduled date for the Gibson Relays.

Additionally, the new synthetic track, which will be built to International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Class-1 specifications, will sport a blue colour, similar to the one used at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin and also the recently completed surface at the University of the West Indies.

Weather

The colouring comes at an added cost, which will be underwritten by the Germany-based contractors, BSW Regupol.

Weather permitting, the track is actually expected to be fully laid by February 19.

However, further IAAF testing, lane markings and surveying have to be completed before it can be cleared for usage.

The work on the track suffered an initial snag after some shipment issues - connected to heavy and unexpected snowfall in Germany - delayed the arrival of the material and in the process cast doubt over the staging of the high-profile Gibson Relays, which is scheduled for February 26.

However, with the material now in the island, officials close to the project are sounding considerably more confident about the timelines.

Peter Breuer, a director at BSW Regupol, who recently arrived in the island to oversee the project, is confident that they will be able to meet the deadlines once the weather remains friendly.

Work simultaneously

"The timeline looks ok now, if the weather holds; and that's what we are hoping for, we will be finished by the end of February," said Breuer.

"Instead of one crew, we are going to work simultaneously with two crews. It's not normally done, but because of the extremely short time that we have, we have no choice. Everybody is aware of the timelines and by all means we intend to meet it."

He added: "I know that there is a really big event on February 26 and we are planning on having the track ready, line-marked, IAAF Class-1 tested, surveyed and all of that by February 25."

Sports Minister Olivia 'Babsy' Grange was also confident of the project's timely completion, but was also quick to point out that there is always the threat of natural setbacks.

"Things are now heading in the right direction, even though I was always confident that it would work out. Sure we had some challenges, but I was positive that the team that was at work would find a way to make it happen," said Grange.

"We should be able to complete it in time, even though we must bear in mind that acts of God, which we have no control over, may affect our efforts. Nonetheless, we will be satisfied that we have tried our best."

As it relates to the extra cost to be incurred by the Government for the added labour, Independence Park Limited chairman, Major Desmon Brown, advised that a meeting was to be held between himself and Breuer late yesterday evening to iron out the finer details and determine the full cost.

It is left to be seen whether or not the organisers of the Gibson Relays decide to take the risk and stick to their original date, or postpone the meet to a date further down the athletic calendar.

"With the blessings of God we will be able to make that deadline and the track will be ready for the Gibson Relays, whenever they decide on the date," Grange chipped in.