Making railway sleepers safe from slips

Old railway sleepers have been used on golf courses from the 1930s and provide an ideal material for many situations while maintaining a natural feel in the landscape. Many golf courses today use them either in bunkers or grassy hollows or more often than not to provide stepped access to elevated or steep sided tees.

However, the advance of soft spikes and moulded sole golf shoes, away from traditional steel spikes, has led to an increase of slips on wooden steps and in the early 2000s this was becoming an increasing problem.

Kings Hill Golf Club in Kent searched for many years and looked at various ideas at other golf clubs, including carpet, astro, chicken wire, tar and chips and chainsaw cut grooves, all in their various ways trying to eliminate the slip issue. A chance advertisement in a trade magazine highlighted a new product called GripClad and it was decided by the club to obtain some samples.

Following that initial assessment a trial set of steps were chosen and the product installed. GripClad arrived in pre-cut lengths and to the dimensions specified, only holes had to be drilled and the cleats screwed down with a mastic to act as a cushioning agent. A set of steps could be easily completed in a couple of hours and a large set in a day.

In addition, if a sleeper had to be replaced it was simply a case of unscrewing the cleat and replacing it onto a new sleeper.

Since that first installation, a decade ago, the club has purchased GripClad every year to complete all wooden surfaces around the course, which includes 10 sets of very large sleeper step installations, four sets of sleeper rails around teeing areas and ancillary surfaces including service and mobility ramps around the Clubhouse. n www.gripclad.co.uk

The performance of the product has been outstanding, says the Club, not only did it cope with the wear and tear of traffic, it performs in all weathers and has not deteriorated in the 10 years that the initial batch has been down. It still looks as good now as it did 10 years ago.

The Club will continue to use it around the golf course as it provide the most cost effective solution, both time and longevity. They recommend this product out on the golf course or around the Clubhouse.