Stadium lights coated for coastal conditions

The Industree Group Stadium boasts one of the most scenic locations of any major sporting venue in Australia. Positioned in the heart of the NSW Central Coast, the southern end of the ground offers stunning open views of the Gosford Waterfront. While the coastal position is a major asset, it also presents substantial maintenance challenges. In particular, the light towers are exposed to sea spray, high winds and extreme UV radiation.

“The light towers had been painted in a Dulux® topcoat twenty years ago, and while that coating had performed extremely well, the surface was in need of a refresh,” says Dulux® Protective Coatings Technical Sales Representative, Peter Vilcek.

Planning and preparation

VenuesLive have been appointed by asset owners, Central Coast Council, to manage the 20,060 capacity stadium and keep it in tip-top condition. Protective coatings specialists, McElligotts, were awarded the contract to repaint all four light towers, starting with the two southeast towers, as they had been most exposed to the elements.

Peter worked closely with McElligotts to carefully plan the project and provide specialist technical advice. Once the large-scale scaffolding was in place, both power and hand tools were used to remove salt residue from the towers with fresh water blasting, to prepare the structural steel for optimum coating adhesion.

A tailored specification

A robust and proven, two step system was applied to protect the light towers:

Dulux® Durebild® STE in Light Grey was applied as a high performance primer. Durebild® STE is a high performance surface tolerant maintenance coating that offers excellent barrier protection for steelwork.
A topcoat of Dulux® Weathermax® HBR was applied to match the previous Dulux topcoat colour, which was 20 years old. Weathermax® HBR created a stunning finish with superior colour and gloss retention. Highly durable, this polyurethane resists high UV exposure.

All coatings were applied by brush and roller from scaffolding.

Long-lasting protection from the elements

Industree Stadium's light towers are gleaming once again, ready to illuminate all the spectacular sports and entertainment events this stadium hosts every year. Our high performance coatings system will continue to resist corrosion and fading for many years, extending the time between repainting and minimising maintenance costs.

“McElligotts were very complimentary about how the coatings behaved during the application process and the quality of the final results,” Peter says. “We look forward to working together on many more projects in the future.”