27th August 2020
Although the ripping operations have successfully removed the extraneous and dangerous material from the pitch plateau, the work to finish the construction of new sports pitches at Orleton Lane continues to develop complications. Fortunately, Turfdry didn’t develop its sterling reputation for pitch construction by shying away from a challenge!
Whilst the pitch composition no longer represents a health & safety concern, with the subsoil and topsoil layers now levelled and free from construction detritus, problems stemming from saturated and soft ground conditions have posed a challenge to the drainage installation. The pitch construction site borders another construction site, where a housing estate is being built. Surface water from the neighbouring site has flowed towards the pitch site, and become trapped along the line of the heras fence that separates the two; this has precipitated significant softening of the ground in the adjacent areas, making the ground impassable by the tractor-mounted trencher.
Further issues with soft ground are present in other areas of the site. Some area of the subsoil layer (constructed by others) have soft, saturated subsoil sat beneath drier layers of subsoil; this wet subsoil has caused significant sinkage and rutting in the affected areas, again making proper drainage installation an impossibility. This soft subsoil has also led to the collapse of one of the main drain trenches for the Turfdry Drainage System’s outfall pipe. With the ground conditions so soft, the trenching machine quickly becomes blocked with sludge; when installation was attempted using an excavator, the trench rapidly flooded with water from the adjacent ground.
In a similar fashion to Turfdry’s project at Hanley Town FC, the primary solution to this prohibitively saturated ground is to install additional drainage to dry the ground, thereby facilitating the installation of the actual pitch drainage system. Consequently, Turfdry have proposed a Hydraway Sportsdrain cutoff drain to run along the boundary of the site, laser-graded with a slight fall from the halfway line of the pitch to each corner; thanks to the unrivalled drainage speed of Hydraway, this should prove the most effective means of quickly drying out the area.
Meanwhile, the depressions caused by the soft underlying subsoil need to be remedied by the tipping and levelling of additional topsoil in the affected areas, and the collapsed main drain trench must be cleared and reconstructed.
Once these operations are completed, we look forward to making some real progress on the pitch drainage soon! Be sure to check back in with our news section later in the year, or find out more about Turfdry’s sports pitch design and construction services here.
