Bob Brock Soccer Field

Project PDF

Morton bay regional council employed Hanceys Turf as the preferred contractor to re build the main soccer field at the site Bob Brock sports fields, Marsden road, Dakabin. having completed a design and construction on a adjacent field at the same site a year earlier. The pitch showed some very familiar characteristics to turf managers on highly used council sites; Compaction, poor drainage, severe wear and tear down the middle of the field (width of the penalty box) and being over run by crows foot.

Objectives

• Complete weed kill using two applications of glyphosate
• Relieve all compaction by use of “blecavator” to a depth of 150mm
• Laser graded the field with a falls as per design from one side of the field to another. (The field naturally falls this direction and with irrigation already in place and being re used this was the most practical design to follow)
• A full drainage system was installed East to West across the surface using 100mm age pipe at 10m centres, feeding into one main outlet along the western side of the field, giving rapid drainage of any surface water.
• Import 3000 tonne of GTS 2000 turf sand pre blended with amendments as per councils specifications. This was pushed out over the playing field to create an even 100mm layer.
• The sand layer was then laser graded and rolled to consolidate before turfing with slabs of Wintergreen couch
• Rolling and fertilising then took place before an irrigation program was put in place

Hanceys turf then had an 8 week “grow in” maintenance program, which involved mowing twice weekly, fertilising and monitoring for any pest and disease activity. The project was handed back to the council within budget and time constraints gaining great feedback from the sports club and council for the quality of surface produced.

Drainage lines installed with 7mm washed gravel finished to sub grade surface level

Cross Section profile of drainage installed

Plan above shows how the Drainage Lines run between the Irrigation lines of the field.
Drainage lines: ——DL—–
Irrigation lines: —–IL——

Shape and grade of the field design to best fit the lay of the land, tie in with hard set surrounding drainage and work in with new proposed drainage system so water would still cross run/pull into sub surface drainage system. This design takes advantage of aggressive surface water run off and sub surface water infiltration.

3000 tonnes of washed and amended USGA turf sand is spread to -/+ 10mm accuracy with a GPS low ground pressure D4 dozer priori to final trimming with tractor and box grader

Playing surface ready for installing the turf

Turfing on the playing, turf was harvested razor thin to minimise any imported soil contamination as turf washing was not an option. The choice of using slabs was also preferred due to the capacity of harvesting slabs thinner than maxi rolls are able to be. Three turf harvesters had been used to harvest and install the turf in as short of a time as possible

Playing surface halfway through the first season