It's fair to say that a lot of our day-to-day work tends to be on golf courses or bowling greens but we do actually treat a lot of recreational facilities in public open spaces and schools.
We've just returned from treating nine primary school fields across Merseyside and as a result of our efforts, the children and staff can look forward to a full winter of sports events unhindered by standing water under their feet.
Dave Connor, Construction and Development Officer for Knowsley Council in Liverpool brought us in during last spring to treat twelve winter sports pitches.
Commenting on the work, Dave said: “The fields were poorly drained because; I think the 60 year old field drainage employing 75mm serrated clay pipes had got blocked up. It wasn’t efficient at all,” he says. “Rather than go down the traditional route which would have meant digging the areas up and putting in new pipe work we decided to opt for one-metre deep air injection which was much more cost effective and is guaranteed for 8 to 10 years.”
We despatched our Airforce and two Airforce Scamper terralift machines to work on the sports fields for the best part of a fortnight.
The sports grounds used to be part of the flood plain for the River Mersey. They're flat, relatively low lying and has problems with clay and in times of flood where there’s a high flow in the channel the river wouldn’t be carrying anything much more than pebbles. We punched through the clay into the gravel.
Due to the nature of the treatment, not only are the sports fields now draining efficiently but the lack of disruption to the schools concerned meant that the treatment was carried out in the morning and the kids could come out to play in the afternoon.
Comments