Identifying and resolving school drainage problem

Since 2018 Ibstock Place School’s sports field suffered from standing water during winter, and it was only after investigation work from AMS Contracting that the extent of the issue was revealed.

As the only grass area for sports at the school, it is a vital space for sports. During the year, two football pitches transition to rugby pitches and then to athletics, keeping the area in constant use.

Ibstock Groundsman, Louis Macklin, joined the private school in August 2020 and inherited the drainage problem, but after a brief examination he called in AMS to explore further.

“When I joined I didn’t actually believe them when they told me about the issue,” explained Louis.

“I came in and got a verti-drain, reseeded and had everything looking nice and everyone was amazed with how it looked. And then the winter months came and I was thinking ‘now I understand.’

“In the winter months it would rain a little bit and we’d have standing water for about a month if it was dry after that. It just wasn’t draining and the pitches were overused, so the grass was ripping out and there were big mud sludges.

“The investigation work was a really valuable part of the process and meant that we could be confident in the plan that was put in place.

“Originally I was going around digging holes and I put two and two together, because the sports staff kept saying it’s ever since the irrigation went in. So I dug near the irrigation and I straight away found a pipe beside a drain run that had been severed through. AMS came in and we got some cameras and dug some more holes and it seemed like every drain run that was near an irrigation line was severed.

“The pitches were originally constructed in 2016 and in 2018 an irrigation company came in to install irrigation. I think because there were no plans to show where the original drainage was done. So, when they dug their trenches for the pipelines they cut through some of the drainage runs.

“The outlet was going through a wooded area that was also overgrown, and that was always flooding and water was sitting on top of the field because it had nowhere to go.”

AMS surveyed the land, and used GPS to plot the field and wooded area to formulate a plan. With the original outlet pipe going into the neighbouring golf club’s trench, an attenuation basin had to be built to accommodate the additional water and the irrigation pipes moved to go in between the drainage runs.

With the project completed, Louis says the field is ‘draining like a dream,’ whilst giving him time to raise the quality.

“It gives me time to get the standards of the actual field and playing quality up higher. We are a private school and they have always preferred for other schools not to come here because of the condition of the field and pitches. But slowly but surely, we’re getting into a position where they will want to host games here.” n www.amscontracting.co.uk