Sports Pitch Design & Construction


Contracted on a ‘design & build’ basis by Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council, Turfdry transformed a disused patch of former colliery land into beautiful sports pitches complete with the Turfdry Drainage System using Hydraway Sportsdrain. The project was part of a larger overall development by the Council, which included housing, community facilities, and a large park - in addition to the sports pitches handled by Turfdry – and therefore required a good deal of communication between the various parties involved to ensure smooth logistical operations.

Testimonial

“All of our major sites now have the Turfdry Drainage System, which has continued to perform to an extremely high standard year upon year, with pitches often remaining playable at times when other matches are called off. We really are very pleased with the system.

We have not completed any further pitch drainage work due to the reduction in local authority funding for such projects.”

Jennet Hough, Landscape Officer, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council

(speaking in November 2019)

The site’s historical function as a colliery presented challenges to its transformation into quality sports facilities. Chief amongst these challenge were old mineshafts directly beneath the pitches, which had been capped by thick concrete slabs, and covered with several metres of heavy engineering clay. In addition to this, the subsurface conditions were far from ideal, with no topsoil layer and very little subsoil present on the site of the pitches. This presented substantial problems with the construction of the pitch with the appropriate gradients to assist with natural drainage – as per Sport England guidelines.

Drawing on its history of providing cost-effective, environmentally friendly solutions, Turfdry arranged to use excavated subsoil that was to be removed from the adjacent Barratt Homes development, incorporating it into the pitches instead. This not only demanded cooperation between Turfdry and Barratt Homes, but also the Environment Agency, with which Turfdry worked closely throughout the project. With the suitable subsoil layer created, Turfdry then imported some good quality topsoil to finish off the pitches.

The construction itself was undertaken using specialist excavators and bulldozers fitted with laser control systems linked to computer design software. The pitches are first designed using 3D modelling software assisted by satellite surveys; these plans are then fed into the machinery, which in the hands of skilled operators, result in efficiently, optimally constructed pitches.

Following the pitches’ construction, the unique Turfdry Drainage System using Hydraway Sportsdrain was installed at 2m centres, with an additional ‘cut-off’ drain circling the perimeter of the site to help overcome drainage issues presented by the site’s ‘bowled’ nature.

The Hydraway Sportsdrain that lies at the heart of the Turfdry Drainage System is an alternative to conventional plastic pipe drainage systems that provides maximum drainage efficiency with minimum disturbance. Whilst water can only infiltrate a plastic pipe over 6% of its total surface area, water can enter a Hydraway Sportsdrain over 75% of its total surface area – which is itself 40% greater than the surface area of a conventional 60mm plastic pipe. This means that water is removed from playing surfaces at a much greater rate, despite the fact that it is installed in trenches only 50mm wide – considerably smaller than those required for traditional plastic pipe.

Subsequent to the drainage installation, final grading work is carried out on the pitches before cultivation and seeding.


In total, nine projects were completed over a ten-year period - as follows - supervised by a range of different project officers:

2004: Roe Lane Playing Field Football Foundation drainage - £150k

2005: Clough Hall Park football pitch drainage - £27k

2005: Birchenwood Park (lower sports plateau) football pitch drainage - £42k

2006: Lyme Valley Parkway rugby pitch drainage - £28k

2007: Bathpool Park rugby pitch drainage - £58k

2008: Birchenwood Park (upper sports plateau) football pitch drainage - £171k

2009-10: The Wammy football pitches, design, construction & drainage - £270k

2011-12: Silverdale football pitches design, construction & drainage - £283k

2013: Wolstanton Marsh football pitches drainage - £55k

nb: All drainage above was designed and installed by Turfdry with the Turfdry Drainage System using Hydraway Sportsdrain.


Project Summary

Services Provided by Turfdry

  • Site Survey
  • Pitch Design & Construction
  • Drainage Design & Installation
  • Cultivation & Seeding
  • Pitch Maintenance

Client

Newcstle-under-Lyme Borough Council


Website

Address

Silverdale Athletic Football Club
9 Scot Hay Road
Silverdale
Newcastle-under-Lyme
ST5 6RQ