Redevelopment Update

With the players back for pre-season training next week, things are rapidly progressing on the redevelopment of the St Lawrence Ground. Read on to find out the very latest.

Three of the new floodlights have now been erected with the remaining two to follow over the next two weeks. You can see a picture of one of the floodlight heads at the start of this article.

The main entrance to the ground, on Old Dover Road, has been closed off to enable archaeology works to be undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust. The entire road will be reformed with improved drainage, paving and surfacing. Gone are the days of the pot-holed drive. Entrance to the ground at present is via the newly improved Nackington Road entrance.

Construction of the new hard standing area that will be used as parking and also for Sky Sports trucks, adjacent to the outdoor sports pitch, is nearing completion. The area is currently being used as a temporary car park but will be formed into a dedicated area for Sky when they are covering games at the St Lawrence Ground.

The Les Ames stand continues to make rapid progress internally with the new fit-out works continuing. Scaffolding will shortly be erected to the outside of the building, in readiness for the changes that are taking place externally. The whole of the Les Ames stand will be reclad with a smart new exterior.

The Cornwallis Room, within the Cowdrey building, is complete and the new function room is now open for business. The completion of the Harris Room has already proved a big success and these new improved facilities are proving popular with conference delegates. The ground floor of the Cowdrey is now being refurbished, to create a smaller meeting room, and improvements will also be undertaken to the lobby and staircase area.

The new extension to the Chiesman Pavilion is progressing well and the steelwork frame has now been completed. This extension forms a new entrance to the building, together with additional public toilets.

The additional floor to the dressing room area is complete externally and is now watertight. The internal fit-out to both floors is now in progress. This includes the new changing rooms, physiotherapist rooms, an office for the coaching staff, showers and cloakrooms for both home and away teams.

The steelwork for the new scoreboard has been assembled and power and data have been provided to the new location on the midwicket boundary of the Old Dover Road side of the ground.

The Annex stand has been redecorated and the new press/media space is now being worked on, together with a new central data IT and communications space. The main roof has been repaired and the scaffolding will be removed shortly.

The new disabled WC has been formed in the Frank Woolley Stand – just one of some of the other minor works being undertaken at this stage of the project.