INSPIRE
Pitch Perfect
Steyn City School Hockey Pitch
Pitch size: 5,917m2 Location: Steyn City, Johannesburg Timeline: 6 months, completed November 2019 Cost: R7.6 million Client: Steyn City School
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teyn City School was established within the renowned Steyn City Development in 2017, and has a unique view in that sport is far more than merely an after-school activity. Aside from the new state of the art school premises, Steyn City School’s sports field is where many children learn about fair competition, self-management, self-discipline, and collaborating with others as a team, all the while honing fine and gross motor skills and developing physical strength. In addition, students are introduced to a variety of lifestyle sports that will remain with them once they enter the world of work. They take full advantage of the facilities in the Steyn City Parkland and this includes trail-running, mountain-biking, golf, and equestrian pursuits.
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The school’s latest addition to their brilliant sports grounds and offerings, is an FIH standard Hockey Pitch recently designed and installed by Africa United. Here, we look at what goes into delivering a pitch of this magnitude. Steyn City School was looking into taking their sports facilities to the next level, and Africa United first came across this project when they were approached by Metrum. The project managers were appointed by Steyn City School to draw up a full specified bill of quantities for construction of a water-based astro hockey pitch. The specification in the bill of quantities stated that this project will be a turnkey, in-house full design and construction project. Africa United were ready for this task, and designed all aspects of the astro hockey pitch. After considerations, detailed designs were handed in to Metrum for approval by the client. Once all the designs were approved, Africa United had them signed
off and then manufacturing and fabrication could commence. The tunkey service included the following aspects: Turf; fencing options; fixed goals; fold-away practice goals; an automated pop-up irrigation system, as well as a full design of the hockey pitch.
Q: What preparation needed to be done to the site prior to the installation?
A: The main contractor WBHO did the bulk
earthworks on site, as they were appointed by the client to do so. Even though this meant we were supplied with a 'flat' surface, there was still a lot of work to do, as leveling on a hockey pitch is of very high importance – these levels need to be 100%. This is one of the key aspects to these builds. We did something called laser leveling on the field, making sure that the levels were 100%
