McLean Park drainage and turf upgrade resumes after heavy rain

A drier McLean Park yesterday as seen from the Napier City Council webcam.

It didn't look like it was working on Tuesday but there was little wrong yesterday as the ponding of McLean Park in Napier disappeared and enabled the resumption of its multimillion-dollar drainage and turf replacement.

The sandy oval of Hawke's Bay's major outdoor sports stadium was under water by daylight on Tuesday after overnight rain, part of a city deluge estimated at more than 60mm in 36 hours.

The new drainage system carried away thousands of litres of water on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied

No inner Napier rainfall figure was available last night, but it was thought to be considerably more than the 48mm recorded in the 48 hours of Monday and Tuesday at Hawke's Bay Airport, where the totals for June and the year to June 12 were 22-33 per cent above average, although the May rainfall was well below average.

MetService said last night no more rain was forecast for Napier before possible showers on Sunday.

The oval rebuild at McLean Park was forced by drainage issues which led to the scrapping of one of its biggest cricket matches, a Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match between New Zealand and Australia, in February last year.

Work started in the second week of April and with a hybrid turf being laid is scheduled to be completed for rugby to return to the park on September 2, when the Hawke's Bay Magpies play a Mitre 10 Cup third-week match against Counties Manukau.