Priory Academy LSST Sports Pitch Construction

This month Fineturf commenced work on a sports field construction project, for Balfour Beatty, at the Priory Academy LSST in Lincoln. The completed project will include 22,000m2 of natural turf sports pitches; containing 3 football pitches, training grids and a full size artificial athletics running track.

Following the initial site set up, the Fineturf team completed the ever important health and safety procedures. Fineturf are fully committed to the Balfour Beatty ‘Zero Harm’ initiative. This encompasses their commitment to achieving zero fatalities, zero permanent disabling injuries and zero accidents by 2012. This is to be done by eliminating risks and hazards and ensuring ‘Zero Harm; is a daily consideration on all sites. For more information please visit their website Balfour Beatty Zero Harm.

Once on site, the works got into full swing with the first task of stripping off the existing vegetation. This could have been done using either a Koro Field Top Maker or a Blec Combinator; Fineturf opted for the Blec Combinator. The topsoil was then heavily cultivated and stripped using Volvo EC135 excavators and a JCB 260LC excavator to an approximate depth of 275mm, removing 7,650m3. The topsoil was stockpiled on site for reuse later in the project. We always try to incorporate as much existing material into the final construction design to benefit the environment, reducing the environmental impact of producing and transporting these materials.

Currently, Fineturf are cutting 30,000m3 of subsoil from one playing field which is being carted using 25 Ton articulated dumpers into a second playing field. Here it is being levelled by Caterpillar D4 and D6 bulldozers fitted with laser guided instrumentation to achieve accurate levels. This will raise the level of the second playing field to facilitate the construction of 2 additional football pitches.

Following the pitch cut and carting of subsoil the first playing field will have 2,100m3 of fill material back in to create the formation for the main football pitch, training grids and artificial athletics running track.

Further stages of the project include topsoil replacement, laser levelling, sand amelioration, drainage installation and the artificial athletics track construction. More details of these phases of the project will follow as we complete them.