UCD ATHLETICS TRACK

AnnaStezia

I was in UCD Belfield today. I had not been there for a while and was amazed to see that the running track now seems to be a builder's yard for materials.
What happened here ? Will it ever be open again? I remember it many years ago as a great facility.

Timmaay

Gone, due to the corporate greed of UCD. http://lindienaughton.com/belfield-track-a-personal-plea/

Big thread floating around on boards about it also.

AnnaStezia

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 ?

gerard_65

Remember looking at the plans submitted to DLRCC at the time. The area where the old track was part of the redevelopment of the campus and a new track constructed on the other side of the campus. If that will ever happen, your guess is as good as mine.

crisco10

gerard_65 wrote: »

Remember looking at the plans submitted to DLRCC at the time. The area where the old track was part of the redevelopment of the campus and a new track constructed on the other side of the campus. If that will ever happen, your guess is as good as mine.

Logically it does make sense to have the track over the otherside of campus. The epicentre of sports on campus has very firmly moved to the Clonskeagh Entrance. However, it is a shame the track went before a new one was even started. How long did it take them to get a 50m pool?!

Any ideas where exactly on the "otherside" of campus?

ecoli

crisco10 wrote: »

Logically it does make sense to have the track over the otherside of campus. The epicentre of sports on campus has very firmly moved to the Clonskeagh Entrance. However, it is a shame the track went before a new one was even started. How long did it take them to get a 50m pool?!

Any ideas where exactly on the "otherside" of campus?

Up by the water tower was I had heard of it (most likely opposite the Sports Performance building by Richview), wouldn't get my hopes up though those plans were supposed to be in place at the time I started in UCD and that is a fair while back as its "pending funding" which was being sought by a task force set up in the aftermath of the bad publicity they got at the time.

Timmaay

ecoli wrote: »

Up by the water tower was I had heard of it (most likely opposite the Sports Performance building by Richview), wouldn't get my hopes up though those plans were supposed to be in place at the time I started in UCD and that is a fair while back as its "pending funding" which was being sought by a task force set up in the aftermath of the bad publicity they got at the time.

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.

crisco10

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.

In fariness though, UCD have been pretty successful in expanding their Sports facilities. Since I started there in 2004; they have added the following:

• 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)

And most of that since the crash. It's just a shame the field sports have been prioritised over the Athletics.

gerard_65

Page 58 on this PDF
http://www.ucd.ie/building/code/documents/Campus%20Development%20Planning%20Section/UCD_CDP2005-2010-2015.pdf

TomD101

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 ?

Every time i run past this track it infuriates me. "a health and safety defect" ... what a disgraceful insult to someone's intelligence.

This track is still being used by public. I actually met with Brian Mullins at the time they announced it in 2008 ( i was then a student there)... he couldnt look me in the eye.

I'm sure that €3m donation that came in last year to fund a new track will be useful for something else now

djemba djemba

TomD101 wrote: »

Every time i run past this track it infuriates me. "a health and safety defect" ... what a disgraceful insult to someone's intelligence.

This track is still being used by public. I actually met with Brian Mullins at the time they announced it in 2008 ( i was then a student there)... he couldnt look me in the eye.

I'm sure that €3m donation that came in last year to fund a new track will be useful for something else now

That's a 6 year old post.

The are currently developing the new track over the opposite side of the campus. Lots of workers on it this morning.

The 3 million euro donation can't be used for any other purpose.

TomD101

Thanks. I'm well aware the post is 6 years old but there hasnt been a post since.

I run down that end of campus as well - there is work going on there and I can tell you it is not on an athletics track.

jlang

TomD101 wrote: »

I run down that end of campus as well - there is work going on there and I can tell you it is not on an athletics track.

It better be a new track they're building...

http://planning.dlrcoco.ie/swiftlg/apas/run/WPHAPPDETAIL.DisplayUrl?theApnID=D19A/0001


Still pushing earth around and they've annoyingly disrupted the perimeter trail, but I see nothing to indicate they're pulling the wool over anyone's eyes. (Other than the original timescale)



I noticed an unrelated planning permission request to rearrange the parking at the N11 side. (recent, don't see it on the council website yet). This includes the transfer of parking at the Eng Block to take up the rest of the old athletics track, which frees up development land at the entrance.

rovers_runner

Brian Mullins, a c*nt of a man.

roarlad

Any update on this?

rxchxy

roarlad wrote: »

Any update on this?

Doesn't look like it will be finished anytime soon. They've just finished flattening the surface but the site has pretty much been a ghost town for the last few months

TomD101

work seems to have ceased - i run by the site at least once per week. The 200m stretch at the old track is seeing plenty of use. It still infuriates me to this day every time I see it

TomD101

rovers_runner wrote: »

Brian Mullins, a c*nt of a man.

you will enjoy this then...

https://twitter.com/KevinBrannigans/status/1316366581937696768

:pac::pac::pac::pac:

jlang

They're out shifting dirt again today. In fairness there's been work going on any day I've looked.

roarlad

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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjoe96m5iq0

Glencarraig

Last time I looked (around 2 weeks ago) there seems to be a slight slope up the far side of the track. I hope they have a very long spirit level !!!!

DangerMouse27

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.

ReeReeG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117646055#Comment_117646055

I was coming on to this thread to ask the same. Would be great if it was open for non students to use and PAYG as you mention.

Murph_D

Or even better, free!

expectationlost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117619364#Comment_117619364

a hell of a lot of work in that

roarlad

Further update.

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

DangerMouse27

The bad weather, seemed to have stopped things for a week. I take it, they need reasonably dry conditions. Did not take any pictures, but that undertrack surface on the pics above, seems to now be covering 300m of the track. I presume its an underlay. Also, the grass on the infield looks to be settled and looks unbelievable. A decent August, and I think it could be laid and open by the end of September.

*Cue the wettest August in history.

roarlad

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.

ThebitterLemon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118860612#Comment_118860612

Christ most other countries would have built an Olympic stadium in the same time…

TbL

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118862327#Comment_118862327

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.

TheAnalyst_

Any updates on this?

roarlad

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..

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/other-sports/finish-line-in-sight-for-ucd-s-new-athletics-track-1.4722972

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..

Murph_D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119070298#Comment_119070298

Ran past the other day. Don't know anything at all about the track construction process but if it looked like it was ready to get the final surface on.

adrian522

Looks more or less done now, lanes painted on the track this week.

Blut2

The shade of blue looks well with the summer weather.

Glencarraig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119450008#Comment_119450008

Looks like its uphill around that bend !!!

jlang

Just went past. Work still going on but can't be long now. Looks really good. Hopefully there'll be a straightforward way for the local public to use the facility.

roarlad

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.

Blut2

The teaching term in UCD starts on Monday September 12th so I'd presume they're aiming to have it done by the preceding Friday on September 9th at the very latest.

roarlad

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

https://www.irishtimes.com/video/video/2022/08/27/an-aerial-view-of-ucds-new-running-track/

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..

Jakey Rolling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119534090#Comment_119534090

Yeah, that's a shot put sector.

Hammer/discus would normally be on the infield, but no evidence of throwing circles or cage so it's maybe more of a running facility than full athletics (track & field)

Can't see the water jump for the steeplechase in that aerial shot, is it yet to be installed?

Murph_D

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

roarlad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119535281#Comment_119535281

Ah, shot put interesting, I was thinking there was a fear some projectile would land on the track itself.

I presume this area is therefore big enough to enclose the shot put area...

AnnaStezia

It looks quite impressive.

However, the overall site looks a little tight from the perspective of how many spectators you might fit in for a major meeting. That said, the old track was not an awful lot better.

Murph_D

Track opened.

https://www.rte.ie/video/id/3588/

average_runner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119630942#Comment_119630942

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

The Black Oil

Looking good.

https://twitter.com/ucddublin/status/1575449637460365314?t=JhiR7j4f2GwJUSJF9DHufw&s=19

DangerMouse27

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.

rovers_runner

..

Glencarraig

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.

DangerMouse27

That's a shame. Hopefully better news awaits from the new DSD track about public usage. For those, not registered with Dublin clubs, the choices are limited on where you can go to use a track.