Construction has begun on a roughly $1.7 million, community-led  recreation centre for Rakaia, which has been two decades in the making.

The old Rakaia Rugby Club's changing rooms and public toilets have been demolished and in its place will rise a new, modern fit-for-purpose community facility, project manager Mark Boag says.

The project has been led by the Rakaia Rugby Club and a community that has been raising funds for a new facility in the Rakaia Domain for a decade.

The approximate $1.7m build will be completed around June.

“It would be built by now if it wasn’t for Covid and it taking a couple of years to sell the old clubrooms,” Boag said.

Building consent was granted in December, allowing local builder Ross Moore to start the project in early January.

“Getting all the consents took a bit longer than we anticipated.

“It’s going to be a four to six-month build, so looking around June.”

There had been a fleeting thought to delay construction, to avoid impacting the busy winter months in the domain, but with rising construction costs the decision was made to “just get on with it”.

The facility will not be available for use until the end of the rugby season but the focus was on getting it built, Boag said.

It’s been two decades in the making.

The rugby club started drafting up plans for new clubrooms as far back as the early 2000s, he said.

Those plans were shelved when the Rakaia Community Strategic Plan in 2009 introduced the idea of a shared sports facility in the Rakaia Domain, and the formation of Sport Rakaia.

That led to much bigger plans and the Rakaia Stadium Trust pitching to the Ashburton District Council in 2015 to back a new sports complex at the Rakaia Domain. But as the EA Networks Centre was set to open in Ashburton, the council baulked at the $1.5m funding request towards the estimated $5m proposed facility.

The rugby club then took charge again and, after Covid delayed progress, they pitched to the council at the end of 2021 to pay for the replacement public toilets in the building.

The council is funding the $351,000 replacement public toilets, a prefabricated toilet block that will be incorporated into the end of the centre, near the car park.

It then took a bit longer than hoped to finalise designs, get consent and start building, but the result will be a facility for all sporting codes and the wider community of Rakaia to use, Boag said.

It will also provide a great venue for the rugby club to celebrate its 150th jubilee in 2026.

By Jonathan Leask