Our Associates become involved in many exciting community projects and Fred Heinze is sharing his experience as Project Manager of the YEA RECREATION RESERVE LIGHTING UPGRADE.
Background
The rural Township of Yea is strategically located at the junction of the Melba and Goulburn Valley Highways in Victoria’s northeast and sits centrally between the townships of Alexandra to the north, Seymour to the west and the Yarra Valley wine region towns of Yarra Glen, Marysville and Kinglake to its south east.
Yea is a thriving boutique town of 1800 people with a busy and productive retail and commercial centre catering for a buoyant year-round tourist trade, and also receives steady support from its surrounding agricultural communities
Project
Big on sporting and cultural activities, Yea boasts a highly functional and well equipped Yea Recreation Reserve (YRR) that serves as a headquarters to a constituent host of community organisations and functions.
Foremost – under the provisions of the Shire of Murrindindi (Council) Emergency management Plan – the reserve is the designated management hub for the Yea Township and regional community. It also provides separate home bases and accompanying specialist facilities for Yea’s, football/netball club, cricket club, tennis club, and the Yea Agricultural, Pastoral & Horticultural Association (YAPHA). A Committee of Management (COM) of elected members from the above constituent YRR organisations manage its activities and provides stewardship to its members.
In 2018, it was reported by the (COM) to Council that the YRR required a lighting upgrade to its main sporting arena and, following council’s research and assessment, a grant application was made for $250,000 and approved the next year conditional upon a council co-contribution of $125,000 – a project total of $412,500 (GST Inc).
A Design and Construct Contract was prepared and Tenders invited for the following Scope of Works:
- Upgrade the 3 phase electrical supply capacity to and from the switchboard at the Yea Football Club clubrooms.
- Provide new sufficient total power capacity for the operation of all facilities within the existing football clubrooms in addition to the new added facilities – the new floodlighting lighting system for the football oval and also for the new electronic scoreboard recently installed at the ground.
- Remove the existing football ground floodlighting poles and luminaires.
- Install new lighting towers and luminaires that provide adjustable average lighting intensity of between 50 and 100 lux over the whole football ground playing surface.
- Supply and lay 3 phase electrical underground cable and all connecting systems to connect and power the new lighting system and new scoreboard. (NO electrical cabling is to be laid/installed within the fenced perimeter of the football ground.)
- Supply and install a lighting management system within the football clubrooms, via the existing switchboard, to control and adjust ground lighting intensity for the new ground floodlighting and optionally the new scoreboard
- Provide lighting design and environmental management to prevent light spillage to neighbouring residences and arboreal care for heritage oak trees partially surrounding the fenced perimeter of the football ground.
- Obtaining all permits and permissions necessary to carry out the works of this contract.
- Conducting Incidental and associated works as directed.
- All works to be complete and lights fully operational as early as possible to minimise the impact on the 2021 football season commencing early April – but shall be no later than 26 May 2021.
Concurrent with this contract – as a result of active work by the COM and the Yea Football/Netball Club –sponsorship had been sought for the supply and installation of a solar powered battery storage auxiliary power supply. RACV Solar, as a result donated the equipment and installed 50 x 450 Watt solar panels and 48 KWh of battery storage (value $110,000) but not the wiring and interconnection to the new switchboard/control panel provided by the D&C Contract.
Worksafe Victoria had also donated a new electronic scoreboard/ public notice board to the COM ($30,000) but this did not provide connection to the 3 phase power grid or commissioning of the new board.
The Contract was let to a local company at Alexandra – E-Tec Pty Ltd – at a very favourable price that allowed added variations to the above scope after permission from the Grant authority had been sought and given.
But not all went to plan. Some latent issues emerged during the delivery phase of the project. Some resulted only in major delays to the contract delivery period without variations, but others required approved variations to the scope to be conducted from the Grant funding.
- The sporting oval is surrounded by 120-year-old heritage-listed oak trees with root systems that would be compromised if cable trenching invaded them. As a result, all cable laying was conducted by thrust boring 1.2 metres beneath the sporting oval, deep enough to avoid the automatic sprinkler system there.
- Part of the existing wiring to the football pavilion was non-compliant and needed replacement to meet standards of the upgraded 3 phase power supply
- The old lights to the football oval were installed at the tennis club.
- The existing auxiliary diesel powered genset starting system had to be upgraded from manual start to auto start to comply with emergency management regulations.
- Major delays in the supply of materials (4 X 28-metre light poles and 25 x1500 watt lighting luminaires) imported from China.
- Major delays caused by the COVID pandemic and power distributor Ausnet.
Although all of the above originally scoped and additionally associated works were achieved under budget, completion of the project did not occur until 8 months later than expected. Caused by unavoidable COVID induced and international procurement delays the projects’ outstanding end result has nevertheless been well worth the longer wait.
PC for the project was issued late in February 2022 and the reserve was officially opened on 1 March by Murrindindi Mayor Councillor Sue Carpenter, supported by local parliamentary representatives Danielle Green and Cindy McLeish.
The Yea Show has been held in November each year now for more than 100 years, barring COVID, and always on a Saturday during the day, until recently, when a Friday twilight competition was introduced with next day to follow. Further development of evening activities is now a sure thing.
Concerts, festivals and other entertainment are being discussed as potential future events, all of which could feasibly take place during evenings throughout the year.
Fred Heinze
BCE, BME, MBS, CE, FIEAust.
Project Manager
Associate CT Management
IMAGE: New Lighting to Oval
IMAGE: New Solar Battery Bank