The work was viewed as a priority by Clutha residents, with a sealed parking lot possibly extending the life span of the facility, Clutha District Council district assets manager Jules Witt said.
Mr Witt said that after receiving 152 submissions on last year's annual plan and petitions with more than 450 signatures in support of the project, the council was pleased to move forward with it.
''This was a project that there was a heck of a lot of support for in the community,'' he said.
''The message from the community was seal the parking area and doing so will help increase the life of the centre's playing surface by reducing the amount of dirt and grit that it dragged inside on a daily basis.''
The council awarded the construction contract for the sealing and associated drainage work and line marking to Southroads for $171,000, 4.7% below the council engineer's pre-tender estimate, at the end of March.
Mr Witt said the cost was 22% above the 2014-15 budget but the council had approved an additional $28,000, to be funded by a small increase in the rating requirement.
''There was quite a lot of input into last year's annual plan about it,'' he said.
''But the budget we had approved wasn't quite enough to get the work done.''
More drainage work was believed to be required once the council had completed the detailed design, he said. The work had been included in a previous contract for last October and November but was retendered, because it would have been considerably above budget.
Four tenders had been received for the work, ranging from the Southroads price up to $227,000.
The impact of the sealing on projected rates ranged from an additional 30c for Balclutha households on their annual payment of $2.36 for the centre to an extra 3c for West Otago households on the 24c they pay a year.
