Arafura Stadium
Improving the stadium's athletics experience through the resurfacing of its athletics track
Northern Territory

The condition of the track surface had deteriorated significantly over time and was no longer fit for state or international competition.

The old track was a full polyurethane surface, and the SPORTENG team suspected that water had been trapped under the surface and was adding to the rate of deterioration.

The track had become soft and spongy in areas, and the trapped water had turned to vapour and resulted in surface bubbling.

SPORTENG provided advice for remediation works to resurface the athletics track, using a red Polytan synthetic surface with specific functional requirements suited to Athletics.

The surface was poured in-situ and provides excellent sports properties such as maximum acceleration and optimum shock absorption. SPORTENG’s understanding of how climatic conditions can accelerate the degradation meant that the track system needed to be designed to account for high humidity and intense rainfall, with a more porous-based system specified to add longevity to the surface.

To further slow degradation, SPORTENG designed a composite system base layer to allow greater air and moisture movement to minimize future surface bubbling.

In addition to this, SPORTENG recommended adding additional weep holes in the drainage trench to further aid in removing moisture from the surface and suggested adjustments to the infield irrigation system to minimize overspray.

The upgrade of the Arafura Stadium Athletics Track returned the facility to national athletics competition standards provided a valuable resource to the Darwin community.

Kate Worden, Minister for Sport, commented on the completion of the project “We want to see our sport start shine, that’s why Territory Labor is providing the best possible facilities for our current and further champions to use.”