Hawke’s Bay Sports Park

The Hawkes Bay Regional Sports Park International Hockey facility is New Zealand’s first and only Tier 1 Hockey facility.

Higgins designed many aspects of this facility to ensure it met the standards of international teams and broadcasters and delivered the project on time within a compressed 20 week programme timeframe before the 1st International Festival of Hockey in April 2014.

Higgins Role:

•Re-design of the international pitch to allow for flatter grades and porous pavement.
•Excavated and constructed hard stands from greenfields for the turf foundations.
•Installation of subsurface drains in the porous turf.
•Design of the international pitch lighting for broadcasting to ensure Lux was acceptable for international HD Broadcast. 
•Construction of concrete flood light foundations up to 5 metres deep by tremmying.
•Design and construction of viewing tower out of modified shipping containers including fibre optics and power for network connections to allow immediate play back to coaches and players in the dug outs.
•Construction of players dug outs.
•Construction of concourse, footpaths and associated amenities.

The redesign of the pitch with Polytene STI was necessary to allow flat surface grades and avoid delays to international matches due to water ponding after heavy rain showers. Kayla Whitelock, the Black Sticks Captain, remarked “New turf is usually quite bumpy but this was pretty good all round”.

The Hawkes Bay Sports Park Hockey Facility project was completed to very high standard, meeting the Tier 1 International standards for the hockey (FIH) and was completed on time for the Hawkes Bay International Festival of Hockey.