Tilling in concentrate
Raking
The 500 tonne U2 claw
Growing out freezer burns
With the two applicators spreading the fibre, two tractors and power harrows tilled in the material to the specified depth. Handraking and working around services on the pitch was also important. Spreading and mixing in of the material was carried out in two passes each. With the fibre mixed to the correct concentration the pitch was wheel rolled again and raked with a specialist rake to get final grades on the pitch. As the team retired on Wednesday evening they were two days ahead of schedule, with tolerances like a billiard table.
Thursday July 16th: Clean up
Just some finishing and tidying up was necessary before handover to the U2 concert team. Demobilisation of equipment, sweeping and cleaning of all the drains around the stadium was carried out. “Stage 2” of the project was complete and the crew left for a well earned rest.
Friday July 17th - Monday July 27th: Stage Preparations
To protect the pitch services from sinkage and settlement, a specially chosen geotextile membrane was placed over the fibre finished pitch before the plastic covering and steel flooring was placed. The U2 show was a phenomenal logistical exercise involving hundreds of trucks and personnel to build the 500 tonne ‘claw’ stage structure It took five days to build and stood out on the Dublin skyline for the eagerly anticipated shows.
Saturday July 26th: Turf Checking
The final walk and assessment of the proposed turf was carried out on the evening of Saturday 26th of July. Turf assessment techniques have been developed at STRI for the likes of Croke Park and Wembley in recent times. If the turf doesn’t pass the
Pitch prepared for All Ireland Hurling Finals just six weeks after laying
criteria, it isn’t used.
Sunday 27th and Monday 28th July: Turf Transport
Transporting turf in 90 refrigerated wagons nearly 200 miles, and then across the Irish sea over a three day period, was a logistical challenge. Too cold and the turf will suffer from freezer burn on the edges, too warm and the centre will heat in the huge 1.2m x 10m rolls. It is a really fine line between the two issues, and the damage from either extreme is a problem in a lay and play situation. There are so many functions affecting the rate of temperature drop of the turf. To credit Andy Fraser at County Turf, trials were undertaken, in the lead up to the project, to determine the perfect load, spacing and temperature to set the fridges. DSV Limited were the chosen hauliers for the project. As the last of three U2 concerts blasted out over Croke Park, ninety refrigerated wagons of turf filled a carpark on the road to Croke Park. A combination of representatives from County Turf and the STRI supervised the turf cooling and monitoring operation twenty-four hours a day, with reams of data being collected. The temperature of the wagons had to be continuously monitored and adjusted.
Tuesday July 29th: Protest
Before the U2 concert crew could start removing the stage, a local residents protest kicked off outside of the stadium at around 1.00 am. The protest was aimed at disrupting the twenty-four hour work licence granted by the local council to the concert promoters in removing the stage. All works stopped as the team sat helplessly trying to control the temperature of 15,500m2
of turf.
Finally, at 4.30pm, the residents called off the protest; and the project kicked off again, fourteen hours behind
Pitch invaision schedule.
Any time contingency was now gone and, with six games sold out for the venue the following Sunday and Monday, the pressure was on. Clive Richardson’s men were supported by Talbot Farm Landscapes and Premier Pitches in the turf laying operation. The first issue to deal with was the thawing of the turf, which takes between six to eight hours. If the thawing is left too long, the centres of the roll will heat within hours. At 10.30pm it was felt it would be beneficial to give the crew a four hour rest until 2.30 am. This also allowed the turf to thaw some more.
Wednesday July 30th: Laying continues
At 2.30am the crew of sixty returned to their positions and the job rolled on under floodlights. The U2 crew were still clearing the stage, so we had specific amounts of trucks and equipment in certain areas of the stadium which we ‘owned’ and they had theirs. At this stage there were around four hundred people working on the pitch - the U2 stage crew and the pitch crew.
Running the system worked well, with two laying machines manned by eight staff each. These were fed by eight tractors and spikes fed, in turn, by four forklifts. The choreography of operations was important; an accident would close the entire project down. As the turf was laid it was snagged by the STRI and the seams washed and rolled. As the crew continued to lay the turf, the project captured the imagination of the country, if not the local residents!
Thursday July 31st: Laying complete
As the turf was placed it became apparent it had suffered considerable ‘freezer burn’ on the edges from the extra time it had spent in the refrigerated lorries during the protest.
89
during the hurling finals
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