The 10,400-seater capacity roofed stadium which Gold Fields Ghana Foundation (GFGF) is reconstructing at Tarkwa Na Aboso in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region will be completed in December 2022.
Mr Roger Adamah, Project Manager of the Gold Fields Ghana Limited (GFGL) disclosed this at GFGL, Tarkwa and Damang Mines at a press soiree for journalists to learn more about their operations and social investment.
He said the project was being executed by Micheletti Construction Company Limited
He stated that, although the COVID-19 pandemic, weather and some unsuitable conditions contributed to the delay of the project, work done was currently about 73 per cent.
“When we started the project just from the surface about 2.5 meter deep, there were a whole lot of materials that were silty, and we could not build on.
The last thing we would have done was to put up a structure and in the near future you would see it sinking, with cracks and all that. So, we had to scoop down almost six meters to take out all the materials and that was a lot of work” Mr Adamah explained.
He continued that the stadium would comprise of, “Dressing room for players and officials, VIP, VIP and media stands, floor lights, electronic score boards, generators, physiotherapy and first aid rooms, emergency services area, where fire tender and ambulance would be parked, tickets boot, drainage among others, adding this stadium has been designed to fit into the required FIFA standards”
“Also, our focus is if Medeama Sporting Club qualify to Africa we should be able to play football at Tarkwa Na Aboso. Alot of time we realised that when they go to Africa, they play in other stadia like Cape Coast and Kumasi, so all international matches can now be played here” Mr Adamah added.
On local content, especially with procurement and labour, the project manager said “all the things that we had in the country, 78 per cent of them were bought in Tarkwa and its environs. With employees from the beginning of the project to date, we had about 61 per cent employees from Tarkwa and the nearby communities.
He said, “This was a strategy from the GFGF that we have to take a lot of the things locally and they have demonstrated it as part of the project implementation”.
The Sustainable Development Manager-Community Relations, Mr Robert Siaw said, the cost involved in the project was around $16.2 million, stressed that Gold Fields as part of its social responsibility had always been looking for opportunities to improve upon lives in its host communities and beyond.
He said sports played a key role in the country and that was why Gold Fields had been assisting to develop sport, adding, “We had a team that was performing well here, to hit the milestone higher the GFGF decided to pick this project to promote sports and provide job opportunities for youth within this area”
Mr Adolph Amevor, Project Manager of Micheletti Construction Company Limited, indicated that “Since Gold Fields will hand over the stadium to the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality to manage when it is completed, they should set some kind of standards for them and ensure periodically they will visit and make sure that whatever has been said in the operations manual they adhere to it, so they keep the stadium life throughout”.
“The operations manual is basically a document that tells you how to operate, maybe a door handle, how to fix back a roof when it’s getting ripped up or what to do at a particular time. So those are the things that we use to maintain the stadium”, he further said.