3G Pitch Construction and Natural Pitch Renovations
After being promoted to the EBAC Northern League Division 1, South Shields FC sought the expertise of CLS Sports for their football ground improvement scheme. The scheme involved the construction of a new 3G pitch and an extensive renovation programme to the existing stadium pitch.
The 3G pitch was a complete new build on what was originally a natural playing field they used for training. CLS completed all the enabling ground works, the drainage installation, fencing, base works and carpet installation ready for the 2016 football season.
The synthetic turf was installed on a dynamic base, a specialist area of expertise for CLS. The completed pitch, designed to meet FIFA 1 star, exceeded this expectation and was accredited to FIFA 2 star.
Key Facility Facts:
As well as the 3G pitch construction, CLS also carried out an extensive renovation programme on the stadium pitch at Mariners Park after it had suffered heavily during the wet Winter months, resulting in numerous game cancellations. Standing water was affecting several areas of the pitch and a historic makeshift herringbone drainage system, installed some years before, had not worked.
After a thorough pitch inspection and testing CLS Sports redesigned the drainage system, laying an extensive network of 5m centre lateral and carrier drains, fitting a vortex to restrict flow to local waterways and installing two silt chambers to limit risk of blockages. A secondary system which consisted of sand slits at 500mm centres using the Imants ‘top-drain’ machine was then installed. The prepared surface was then dressed with 200 tonnes of sports sand prior to the seeding operation. The renovation took a total of 2 weeks and the surface was ready for 1st team action at the start of the new season in August 2016.
Scope of the works:
