Watch Those Corners: Melville Speed Skating Track Takes Shape
By Tristan Hooker/MediaPA
In August 2015 the Hamilton District Council granted Hamilton Roller Skating Club approval to develop a speed skate track at Melville Park.
The work has now begun at Melville Park and locals, as well as skating enthusiasts, are watching eagerly as the skate track takes shape.
Building a speed skate track is no easy task, as speed skaters could be reaching an estimated 60km per hour on the completed track. Every corner and curb has to be carefully measured to make sure things will run smoothly on race day.
Warren Hargreaves and his company Waikato Construction Ltd have been charged with installing the concrete edging on the speed skating track.
Mr Hargreaves says the job is being done using computer grading with an accuracy of within 5mm. “And it’s going very well,” he says.
Waikato Construction has been involved with a number of high-profile projects recently, including the hugely successful Hillcrest Roundabout.
Mr Hargreaves says creating concrete edging for the oval-shaped skate track is not too dissimilar from making the concrete curbing on the Hillcrest Roundabout.
“With a project like the Hillcrest Roundabout there’s a lot of traffic and the curbs are obviously more heavy duty than we’re putting in here,” he says. “But the regulations are the same and the same concrete is used.”
Mr Hargreaves says the moulds his company are using for the skate track are the same ones they used to make the curbing on the new part of the Tauranga-Mt Maunganui Bridge.
“The moulds can be repurposed for different projects,” says Mr Hargreaves. “We use about 40 different shapes to cover a range of projects.”
Mr Hargreaves says once the concrete edging on the skate track is finished and has dried, Waikato Construction will have completed their work and the next contractors will step in and lay the asphalt.
“This has been a team effort,” says Mr Hargreaves. “For a project like this to work well, a number of different contractors need to work together - and that’s exactly what’s happened here.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing the track in action.”
Contact Waikato Construction:
Phone: 07 843 3576
Email: warren@waikatoconstruction.co.nz
Mobile: 027 477 9226
Address: 5 Clow Place, Hamilton
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WaikatoConstruction/?fref=ts
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