Sewage setback - Wilks explains delays to refurbishing of stadium basketball courts

General Manager of the Sports Development Foun-dation (SDF) Denzil Wilks pointed to a poor sewage system as the reason behind delays on a refurbishing exercise being carried out on the basketball courts at the National Stadium complex.

Wilks told STAR Sports that the problem has now been rectified, and work will resumed shortly.

"There are a number of issues, and one has to do with the sewage system because after the NWC (National Water Commission) had dug it (the surface) up, it posed problems again, and so, they had to go in and dig it up a second time," said Wilks.

"A decision has been taken to abandon the manhole that is under the courts because of the fact that it is giving too much problems, and so, they are going to do a bypass so that they don't have to go under again," Wilks said.

"We have also had some problems with the surface because we can't find a supplier as yet to satisfy the needs as far as that part of the work is concerned," he said. "I think that we are there now in terms of identifying a supplier, but all of that has not been signed up as yet. But that is something that I have been working on with my chief engineer, and we think we are close to a solution with that."

Refurbishing work

The seating capacity will be expanding from 400 to 1,000 as part of the refurbishing work at the facility. Wilks added that there were also some delays with the arrival of the seats that are to be installed at the venue.

"There were some delays with the seating arrangements which have now been sorted out because there were some errors with the materials that came in," said Wilks. "Some were correct and some were incorrect, but that has been straightened out, and the new ... things are here now."

The refurbishing work, which began last May, is costing the SDF approximately $35 million.