History
The 2000 New Zealand Track Championships were held at Kew Bowl and as had happened on previous occasions, weather conditions had a major influence on the meeting. A prominent New Zealand cycling personality made comment on national media questioning why Cycling New Zealand continued to award New Zealand Championship events to Kew Bowl, where weather was often an issue and the bumpy nature of the track was not suited to top competition.
That statement was a catalyst for Cycling Southland to further their plans of establishing New Zealand's first indoor cycling facility.
Many meetings were to follow and feasibility studies that were undertaken identified that the priority site for the new facility was adjoined to Stadium Southland, as part of the four court extension proposed for the existing facility.
A community fundraising venture was initiated by Harcourts Real Estate, a longtime supporter of cycling in the south, who were keen to ensure that the Velodrome became an integral part of the Stadium Southland extensions.
Calder Stewart Industries was appointed as the project design and build company and a German Architectural Company, Schuermann Architects were appointed as the Velodrome designer. Negotiations commenced regarding the design and project costs and in August 2005, the groundwork commenced to signal the start of the $8 million project.
A Project Committee, chaired by Mr Ray Harper who had played a significant role in the development of the Stadium Southland building which had been opened in 2000, included Cycling Southland administrators, Stadium Southland Management and other prominent identities, met regularly for a three-year period to ensure the appropriate plans were in place.
In early December 2005, 150 tonnes of track timber and other necessary equipment was shipped out of Hamburg, Germany en route to Port Chalmers, New Zealand, where it duly arrived on 29 January 2006. The six containers were then transported by road to Invercargill and onto the building site at Surrey Park, which now had the walls and roof completed to a sufficient stage to ensure that the building was weather proof. A section of the south wall of the Stadium extension building was left open to allow access for the containers of equipment and once the equipment had arrived, the building was then secured.
Ten German specialist track builders, including the Track Designer, Ralph Schuermann were present when the equipment arrived and work on assembling the 300 track support trusses began immediately. Seventeen local carpenters had been co-opted to assist with the track build and progress on the project was rapid. Once the supporting trusses were in place, the 55 km of surface timber was hand nailed into position, commencing on the inner edge and working concentrically up the track. Some 360,000 nails were used in the project with the Velodrome only taking five weeks to complete.
The extensions features the 250 metre international Velodrome and four court space and also includes an administration block which houses many of Southland's regional sporting organisations, storage, toilets, showers and changing rooms.
The entire project took only 57 weeks to complete and was officially opened on May 26, 2006 by then Prime Minister, Helen Clark.
Read more about this topic: Invercargill ILT Velodrome
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