Location :

Frankston, VIC

Client :

Frankston City Council

Year :

2019-2020

Sector :

Acrylic | Tennis

The Frankston Tennis Club was located directly adjacent to the Frankston hospital. To accommodate hospital expansion works, the Victoria Government acquired the land where the tennis club was located and funded the club's relocation to a redeveloped facility at Frankston East Tennis Club located at Centenary Park.


Both clubs consisted of en-tout-cas courts however the redevelopment of the Centenary Park facility would consist of thirteen (13) acrylic hard courts. Each new court would consist of new lighting and fencing and the overall facility would include an upgrade to the existing pavilion, carpark and landscaping.


SPORTENG were engaged by Council to undertake the detailed design and documentation for the redevelopment of the tennis courts and the carparking.

THE CHALLENGE

Council have had issues with the construction of flexible asphalt courts in the region due to rust staining of the surface from the pyrites in the asphalt. The rust stains cannot be removed and require the effected area of the asphalt to be removed and patched and the surface re-coated. Council were keen to avoid a situation like this.


The existing courts consisted of a free draining aggregate profile overlying natural sands. The free draining aggregate pavement, mainly consisting of scoria, would not be a suitable base for the pavement.


The site did not have a formal drainage legal point of discharge, as the existing courts were permeable and relied on the natural underlying sands to infiltrate any rainwater landing on the court surface.

THE SOLUTION

SPORTENG proposed two alternatives for the court pavement: a flexible asphalt pavement with a stain blocker layer over the asphalt, and a rigid concrete pavement. Council adopted the concrete court pavement option as it removed the potential for any rust stains on the acrylic from impurities in the asphalt layer.


To minimise excavation works across the site, the design removed the free draining layers of the existing en-tout-cas courts, and built up from the exposed subbase material. By doing this the waste disposed from site was significantly minimised, helping to reduce the project's carbon footprint.


Working with Council engineers a defined drainage legal point of discharge was agreed, and a gross-pollutant separate trap included at the outfall. The drainage for the western carpark could not connect to this outfall so the design included a bioretention swale that discharged into a soaker pit.

THE RESULTS

The overall $4.2m upgrade to create a regional tennis hub in Frankston was successfully delivered by late 2019. All courts meet the ITF requirements and have allowed both the Frankston and Frankston East tennis club to play tennis on high-quality tennis courts.


“A modernised Centenary Park tennis facility will become a major asset to the local community and region as an attractive location for competitions, encouraging increased membership and participation while retaining a piece of Frankston City’s sporting history for generations to come” said Frankston City Mayor Michael O’Reilly.