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Caloundra Tennis Centre

cal2a

Project no. 6382

The Caloundra Tennis Centre redevelopment is part of the Sunshine Coast Council’s Caloundra Central Park Sport and Recreation Precinct Master Plan 2011. Council’s aim is to create a high-quality regional tennis centre capable of hosting regular events and with the capacity to attract and host international events.

The Sunshine Coast Council, in collaboration with Brand + Slater Architects, commissioned BE Collective to provide civil and structural consultancy services for the redevelopment of the Caloundra Tennis Centre at Caloundra Central Park. The redevelopment comprises:

  • 9 new tennis courts including a show court,
  • refurbishment and resizing of 7 existing courts
  • a major expansion of the existing car park
  • pedestrian pathways and other ancillary works including shade structures, seating fencing and lighting.

The main challenge of the project was to achieve an affordable tennis court pavement solution acceptable to Tennis Queensland. The brownfield site comprised highly-variable, reactive and weak soils. Uncontrolled fill and a natural spring were also identified during construction excavation of the pavement box.

Different pavement solutions were adopted for upper and lower courts in consultation with the Contractor, Geofabrics Australia, Council staff and geotechnical supervising sub-consultants.

Concrete courts were constructed on a composite geogrid (by Geofabrics Australia) followed by a 300mm thick layer of 75mm singly-graded gravel subbase material wrapped in geofabric and then a 150mm thick base layer of CBR45. This solution provides a stable platform which will limit cracks from surfacing onto the courts. The single-graded 75mm subbase was affordable to source and lay and when combined with the geotextile and perimeter drains facilitated subsoil drainage and preservation of pavement strengths. (more…)