Leak found in Manchester velodrome

Cyclists at Manchester's newly completed œ9 million velodrome ground to a halt last week because of a leaking roof. A race meeting was cancelled because the steeply banked track was deemed to be too dangerous to cycle on.

Amec Building, which won the design and construct project for the velodrome thanks to its futuristic roof design, was called in and told to find the leak.

'I got a warning late on the Tuesday afternoon,' said Barry Broadbent, technical director of the Manchester Regional Track league which holds events at the velodrome twice a week, 'and had to call that night's event off.

'Water was dripping onto the track, two feet from the top at the steepest part of all, where the track is banked at 42¼.

'I was told on Friday that we will only have this problem when the wind is in a certain direction. If it happens again, I'm told that they will sheet up the inside of the roof, so when water comes in it falls somewhere less important than the track itself.'

But Amec Building insists there would be no next time. 'On the Wednesday we had a guy up on the roof and he found the fault,' said a spokeswoman. 'He resealed the problem area of the roof with mastic. End of problem.

'We had atrocious weather that Tuesday night. Water had been blown uphill by the gale. We're not talking of large quantities - there was no more than a cupful but it was on the track,' she explained.