UCD ATHLETICS TRACK

Timmaay wrote: »

Those plans also included a hotel and cinema ha! Typical celtic tiger dreaming. Thankfully that never happened! It might have made sense to amalgamate all the sports into one part of the campus, however every college in Ireland has been financially crippled for the last 20yrs and a small bit of realism would have gone along way.

• All Weather Soccer
• All Weather Rugby
• All Weather GAA
• All Weather Cages
• Sand Based Astro (the one near Paddy Power)
• Swimming Pool
• New Gym in swimming pool complex
• Various Floodlight Pitches at Roebuck
• Leinster Rugby's training pitch (although I think your man Shubotham paid for that)

AnnaStezia wrote: »

I was in UCD Belfield this week.

The athletics track does not look like a builder's storage yard anymore.

It now looks like a car park in an advanced stage of construction.

Did they ever identify the health and safety defect that caused it's closure as a track ? I am curious, because I was on the track a few weeks before the closure. There were about 2 very small tears on the running surface (on the back straight) but nothing akin, in gravity, to an escape of ionising radiation !!!

Is it not ridiculous that a universitythe size of UCD has no running track ? :mad:

Young Mr. O'Riordan has written about this in the Irish Times in his very good athletics column on a Saturday. Can he get to the bottom of this latest reincarnation of the demised running track ?

roarlad wrote: »

Any update on this?

rovers_runner wrote: »

Brian Mullins, a c*nt of a man.

I was in UCD today for my vaccination and called over to the building site where the new track is being developed.

Took some photos:

If I was to guess, I would say there are at about the 52 second mark in this video, so 49 seconds left.... time to buy new spikes!

It's starting to come together nicely. Seems to be a completion date by September, which seems fanciful.

I am wondering, do you reckon it will be available for non-students to use? Via a round fee or something, pay as you go kind of job. This would be the epicentre of handiness.

Or even better, free!

Further update.

Not exactly flying along..but progress is progress. If I was a betting man I'd say November at this rate.

Just to say, I called by the track yesterday evening, points to note:

• Track appears to have been fully laid
• No line markings
• Spectator areas incomplete
• Outer ring barrier is going up
• Unless I'm completely misreading it, it looks like the shot-put/discuss/hammer zone is outside the ring of the track, adjacent to the 110m start.. and end up throwing across the track and directly towards a floodlight.. hopefully I'm completely wrong here.. It could just be them building foundations for the spectator areas/drainage? TBC..

All in all, still a few weeks away from completion anyway.

Yes, but possibly with slave labour! Progress has been reasonable considering the perfect storm that’s hit the construction sector in the last two years.

Was in the area tonight so snapped a pic.

Still a lot of work to be done. Looks a few weeks off minimum, so much for being done in time "Irish University Championships and an Irish Milers’ Club"  in late April..

Doesn't look like much track has actually being laid since November last year..

As you can see, the top layer of the track is still being laid, the outer barrier ring is still being installed.

There is a lot of cleanup still to be done outside the barriers, viewing areas, ancillary buildings etc..

Looks like its uphill around that bend !!!

Was up there myself last Friday, like you said @adrian522 it is more or less there, some last bits of outer fencing, sand pits etc..

They were wwatering the infield and some other touch ups when i was about..

should certainly be open for start of term in September at a minimum.

New video on the Irish Times of the running track, looks ready to go.

I noticed this area before, what on earth is that cone section for? is this the Hammer / Discus section? There is an area at the far end of the track for Javelin and probably the Shot put..

Water jump is there alright, at the far end just above the U.

Plenty of room around the outside of it. We don't exactly get many turning up to view a meet anyhow

From the communication via UCD, it will only be available for use by UCD athletics and various local bodies, schools, clubs etc before public access is granted. I could imagine, it's something to do with security, safety etc.

The only remit via the donor was that it was available to the local community. There is a fine balance as obviously, you don't want to have anyone come in and wreck it.

But it's definitely open and in use. UCD Athletics had their first session on it last night.

Certainly one to watch, when everything settles, as I cannot wait to be able to use this track.

Article in todays Indo, track will be for the use of UCD high performing athletes, UCD AC will have it two evenings per week. Members of the UCD Sports & Fitness and rented out to various clubs with Blackrock AC likely to anchor there in the years ahead. It will not be open to the public on a pay as you go basis.