Hazlegrove School - Artificial Grass Hockey Pitch
With the school set in 200 acres of park land, Verde Recreo have greatly enjoyed working for Hazlegrove Preparatory School in Somerset. The project comprised of the re-surfacing of an existing red-gra court to provide a new artificial turf hockey practice pitch, alongside a multi use tarmac court for tennis and netball.
Description
Hazlegrove School has a keen focus on sport. It has excellent facilities, including an artificial turf hockey pitch and a swimming pool, and produces excellent sporting results; their U12 girls hockey team were National finalists this term. Always looking to improve their facilities, the school identified their existing red gra pitch, known as The Bastion, for re-development.
Verde Recreo were involved at an early stage of the project, offering advice to the school during the design phase and providing the drawings required to obtain planning permission. This was granted in June 2010 and following a highly successful fund raising appeal, the project started in mid July.
The existing pitch has been divided into two, to provide a sand filled artificial grass pitch, suitable for tennis and hockey practice, and an acrylic sprayed tarmac court, perfect for netball and tennis.
Both courts are floodlit; the tarmac court to 400 Lux and the artificial pitch to a recreational level. The fencing is a combination of post and rail to the artificial pitch and a black weldmesh to enclose the tarmac facility. We constructed this facility in 8 weeks and handed over to the School in September 2010
Project Diary
Our first day on site. We set up our site compound, erected the safety fencing and put up our signs. We started scraping up the red gra and removed some old fencing.
Works began this week with scraping off the old red gra surface and removing from site. We then pulled up the old kerb races and excavated the extensions for the artificial turf area.
We started installing the drainage this week, excavting a large soakaway on Monday and digging out the carrier pipe on Tuesday.
We finished installing the lateral drainage under the pitch and on Friday concreted the roots for the floodlighting system.
The cables for the floodlighting system were put in the ground this week and we started the kerbs to the tennis courts.
We began kerbing the tennis courts on Monday, and the fencers started installing their fence posts on Tuesday.
The kerbing and fencing works have been carrying on all week. On Friday the laser dozer arrived on site and began spreading the stone sub-base.
The stone layer for both pitches has been trimmed and rolled and we have started installing the post and rail fence that surrounds the artificial pitch.
On Thursday the tarmac gang started on site and laid the base course to both pitches. Friday was spent tarmacing footpaths and installing the sockets for the tennis nets and netball posts.
The tarmac layer to both courts was completed this week and we put up the new floodlights. These have been painted black which makes them blend in to their surroundings. Can you see them?
With the tarmac complete, we were able to lay the shock pad layer to the hockey pitch and start cladding the fence surrounding the tennis courts.
The artificial grass tennis carpet has been delivered and was laid by the end of the week. The fencers have been installing a post and rail fence to enclose this court.
The tennis courts were colour coated and line marked for tennis and netball this week. This needs a week to cure and we will be ready to hand over the courts to the School.
We handed the courts over to the School on Thursday, one day ahead of programme.
