"This project has been many years in the making. There's real momentum building here. This project will be delivered" said Minister of State for Sport Jack Chambers at Walsh Park on Thursday afternoon as the first sod was turned to commence the redevelopment project.
After a number of false dawns the highly anticipated works on the city ground get underway with Phase 1 set to be completed in time for the first home game in the 2023 Munster Championship.
The first phase will see a new uncovered stand - possibly 3,400 seats in capacity - in the Northern terrace opposite the main stand. The Southern stand will be refurbished with works being carried out on the roof and press area as well as improvements being made to the toilets underneath the Southern stand. The timber seats will be replaced with more modern pop-up seats.
County Board Chairman Sean Michael O' Regan said it's a huge moment not only for Waterford GAA but for all people in Waterford. "Today is the start of what will probably take three years to get to the end. This is Phase 1 - it's a hugely significant day to launch and it's great to have so many people here today from club officers to the main stakeholders from Munster, Croke Park and the government as well."
"Work has already started before today behind the scenes," said O' Regan. Construction company Suirside have been tasked with the development and have already been in the venue to plan the work, but O' Regan advises that it may be a couple of weeks before we see heavy machinery making its way through the gate.
As part of the plan for Phase 1 the pitch is set to be widened also. The talking point emerged last year that the playing surface was not wide enough to allow for fast-flowing and expansive play. The goal will be to widen the pitch by three and a half metres and O' Regan jokes that "it's good news for the intercounty hurlers but maybe bad news for junior footballers and hurlers, but so be it".
"More importantly" says O' Regan are the works set to be carried out on the Northern Stand. "A seated stand will be over there that will hold probably 3,500. So in seven or eight months, we will have a capacity of maybe 8,000 seated patrons."
Waterford County board have been assured of significant financial support from both government and Croke Park. While inflation has both risen and fallen in different spells these past three years due to covid and other factors, the estimate for completion of the works currently stands at about €12 million.
When the work is all said and done the capacity is likely to be 13 -14 thousand, but as costings are likely to change there is room to increase that number upwards of 15 thousand.
"It's [now] the end of 2022. Year one will be in 2023. We're going to be running parallel of the design phase of Phase 2 which will probably start in 2024 - it will take a good chunk of 2024 to get it completed, which will be the Keane's [Road] side of things. That will bring us right to the end of 2025 and our intention is to go as fast as we possibly can to get there but you're definitely talking the end of 2025 the end of."
While it was a bitterly cold day at Walsh Park it didn't stop the dignitaries from turning up in force to ring in the works. One of the key figures in attendance was GAA President Lary McCarthy who was delighted to see the project begin. "We had hoped to start a while ago but we're going to get shovels in the ground today and in the next couple of weeks we'll have an awful lot more. You'll see a phased development of this which is the way to go. Get it started, get it up and going and then we'll take the second and third phases on after that."
McCarthy said that Waterford County Board made a very convincing case in terms of why redeveloping Walsh Park was necessary. "Waterford for many years would need it arguably. It's great to see it started. I think this is a phenomenal location given it's in the centre of the city, it's an urban environment and I think it's a great place."
