Cottage industry


Temporary access ramp onto pitch formed from stripped rootzone material


From access route to healthy grass root, James Westwood, STRI Design & Drainage Consultant, details the work undertaken at Fulham Football Club to install a a new fibrelastic pitch with modern undersoil heating


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arly in 2010, Fulham Football Club took the decision to install an undersoil heating system on its Craven Cottage pitch. This followed a succession of match postponements caused by a frozen pitch or heavy snow cover during the previous few seasons. Whilst the club had made use of an inflatable cover for the pitch, this was not entirely successful and was relatively labour intensive to operate. The loss of fixtures and potential income conflicted with Fulham’s Premier League status, where clubs are required to provide an undersoil heating system or another system of pitch protection approved by the Premier League board. Following discussions with STRI’s Stadia Services, a programme of work was agreed for redeveloping the pitch, in which the existing upper profile would be removed, facilitating the installation of the pipe work for the heating system. The removal of the existing fibre reinforced upper rootzone also presented the opportunity to update the pitch’s surface reinforcement, with the introduction of a ‘Fibrelastic’ rootzone as produced by the Mansfield Sand Company Ltd. 48


The Cell System


The construction of the Craven Cottage pitch is unique in the UK, in that it is based on a type of profile known as the ‘Cell System’, which was installed at the stadium in the early 1980s. This type of construction comprised a coarse sand based profile, the sides and base of which were enclosed within an impermeable membrane. A series of perforated pipes was laid on the pitch base above the membrane, after which the sand rootzone layer was added. The outlet for the pipe system was connected via a two- way valve arrangement so that, during the wetter periods, water collected by the pipes could be drained off to a suitable outfall.


Conversely, during the drier summer months, the valve position could be changed so that water could be fed back into the pipes, enabling water to percolate into the base of the rootzone and, theoretically, support normal grass growth. With this concept, the requirement for a conventional irrigation system was considered unnecessary, owing to the sub-surface wetting of the profile.


However, once brought into use, it soon became apparent that sub-surface watering of the pitch was not achieving the required results and, ultimately, a conventional irrigation system had to be installed in order to support normal grass growth on the very free draining profile. In addition, surface stability became an issue where the grass cover was lost owing to the coarse sand nature of the pitch construction. Initially, this was overcome by capping the Cell System profile with a layer of imported topsoil, approximately 150mm deep. This helped provide a more stable playing surface, as well as a sustainable grass cover on the pitch. However, a major consequence of capping the profile in this manner was that surface drainage was impaired when compared to the original pure sand construction.


Subsequent profile amendment


Owing to the shortcomings of the modified Cell System construction, STRI was appointed in 2001 to design a scheme for undertaking a major refurbishment of the pitch, the main purpose of which was to introduce a completely new pipe drainage system, as


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