The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHILE the infrastructure is continuing to be developed in the Thomas A Robinson Track and Field Stadium, the landscaping throughout the Queen Elizabeth Sports Center has been totally and uniquely transformed.

During a press conference yesterday at the stadium, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson recognised and commended the engineering firm Integrated Building Services, or the IBS Group, for their visionary plans for the green zone, which is made up of 450 acres.

“What we did was we prepared the master plan for the site, which is an allocation of all of the anticipated venues for the new baseball stadium, the softball stadium, the dive center and the hotrod center,” said Nick Dean, the principal of the consulting engineering and project management firm.

“We prepared the civil designs for all of the roadways, parking lots, sanitary sewer and telecoms to support all of the new venues. Then we did the project management to monitor the construction of the site to ensure that the works are conducted in accordance with the designs.”

Dean, who attended the press conference along with staff engineer Gregory Williams and director of operations Kevin Sweeting, said after being awarded the contract in 2009, they formed a joint venture with the IBI Group that has offices in the United States and Canada.

“After having an interview with all of the sporting organisations that will be involved in the site, we sat down and found out what everybody wanted in terms of parking offices and office spaces and we came up with a plan that will accommodate everybody’s needs, not their wants because we wanted to make the best use of the site.

“We did an aerial shot of the site and we mapped out the potential plan, threw that aside and did another one. We had about five of them and then we took the best components and we formed a draft. We took that draft back to a steering committee, which consisted of our clients, the Ministry of Youth and Sports.”

Removing the old road that went directly through the QESC, Dean said they wanted to provide a pedestrian-style route and passive park spaces with benches for picnics and concert-type events to be staged. “It’s made to be a relaxed atmosphere for non-sporting activities,” Dean said.

While they were directly responsible for the design, Dean said they sub-contracted the Bahamas Marine Construction and Bahamas Hot Mix to carry out the work.

“We’re on time and on budget,” he said. “That’s unusual for a Bahamian and non-Bahaman alike for a project of this nature.”

When completed, Dean said the landscaping will truly compliment the new stadium, which has already been dubbed the “gem of the region.”