By Alesha Capone
Wyndham council is working on a new design to permanently fix the leaking roof at Werribee’s Eagle Stadium.
The $47 million stadium has been plagued by a leaking roof since its construction about four years ago, forcing the cancellation of basketball and netball games on days of heavy rainfall.
Council city operations director Stephen Thorpe said designs for the permanent roof works would be finalised by the end of the year.
“We’ll release a tender for the works in early 2021,” he said.
“We’ve planned for up to $7 million to complete the permanent works in our budget, however this will not be known until the tender process is completed.”
Mr Thorpe said the council understands there were further leaks over the weekend of December 5-6 which caused some inconvenience.
“Unfortunately, leaks will continue to happen from time to time until a permanent fix is in place,” he said.
“We know how important these works are to provide an uninterrupted experience for stadium visitors and will have a contractor on-site to start the works as soon as the tender process is complete.”
The council’s website says that some of the sources of Eagle Stadium’s roof woes include leaking from skylights, box gutters and roof panels.
The website also says that while design work is underway on a permanent solution, interim measures will be implemented.
Some areas of the roof will be “taped” to prevent leaks, with a trial of the taping method to run between March 2 to 20 to assess its effectiveness.
“Council appreciates the frustrations of the community/users of the facility and that’s why we have been looking at the best ways to minimise disruptions in the short term, while taking the necessary steps to resolve the issue permanently,” Mr Thorpe said.
“Our priority is to ensure the roof stops leaking permanently, and once the issue is resolved we will then consider steps to recoup costs.”
In June, former mayor, Cr Josh Gilligan, said the council would pursue the parties responsible for the leaking roof.
“We will recoup the cost, of what we can, to ratepayers,” he said at the time.
Details: www.wyndham.vic.gov.au/venues/eagle-stadium
