4 minute read
Pitch Perfect: Steyn City School’s newest edition by Africa United
Pitch Perfect Steyn City School Hockey Pitch
Pitch size: 5,917m 2 Location: Steyn City, Johannesburg Timeline: 6 months, completed November 2019 Cost: R7.6 million Client: Steyn City School
Steyn 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. 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.
before we could start prepping the field for the e-layer. Q: How many staff members does it take to complete an installation of this size? Is there a specialized skill each worker needs to have for these types of installations? A: Each staff member is trained to do a specific task and they are skilled in this job. In this case, we had 12 of our own staff members who had a variety of skill sets to make this build a success. We also reached out into the community and appointed five local labourers to join the team and to upskill. Our staff were sharing their skills with the local labourers, and we had extra help with the build, which benefitted all parties. Q: What type of maintenance plan is in place on this site? A: Steyn City School was supplied with a triangular brush – made specifically for this pitch
– as well as a full maintenance manual to ensure that their in-house maintenance team is fully equipped for maintenance on this field.
Africa United’s maintenance team is also available to Steyn City, should they require assistance. Q: Are there specific considerations set out by FIH for these specific fields? A: The pitch needs to be built to FIH standards.
This means that the base – before elastic layer was installed – had to be signed off by the turf supplier to make sure that we qualified within the FIH specification range.
Once the base was signed off, we had to carefully install the elastic layer as well as the astro turf.
The astro turf product we used, Desso, supplied the client with a certification stating that the turf is approved on an FIH specification.
Quick Facts about the Pitch
This is a water-based hockey pitch.
Constructed with a 15mm e-layer – this layer is a rubberised shock pad, that is installed underneath the turf.
Turf used: Desso Sportilux Smart WB Synthetic Turf, imported from Germany.
Pile weight of > 2000g/m 2 and FIH Lab Report.
Fully automated irrigation system installed with ST Hunter Pop-up sprinklers; including all piping and VSD pump system, also including all automation and control equipment with 20,000 litres of storage capacity, including tanks.
In-house manufacturing of fold-away practice goals, fixed goals, fencing and poles as well as netting installed around the pitch.
Installation of 12m high, foldable, light masts with 1500Mwh – fully installed with DB board and all necessary cabling.
www.sporturf.co.za info@sporturf.co.za
