Artificial Surfaces
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time of year the works will take place. In any case, significant landscaping will be required at the end of the project to make good haul routes to and from the site itself. For obvious reasons, including health and safety, it is best to refrain from significant lorry movements through the main infrastructure of the site to avoid parking issues or traffic management issues, including interaction with pedestrians. Appropriate CDM co-ordination will consider this issue in more detail.
Finally, geotechnical information of the site needs to be ascertained. This would normally take the form of a geotechnical report, including onsite investigations by trial holes. Modern ground scanners can be used to eliminate some of this requirement, but
even scanners would normally be supplemented by onsite investigation to verify services and structures found. This will allow you to understand the topsoil and subsoil type and the nature of the ground in general, including any unstable material and the potential for drainage that the site holds. This will influence the overall design solution, including drainage design and the ability of the ground to support the subsequent layers built upon it. Topsoil should be carefully considered in terms of storage on or removal off site, as it can be a significant cost to remove off site. Likewise, on site storage needs consideration, as there will be an appreciable volume of the material. It can be used in final landscape works, but not in the
Going to Market
Procuring synthetic and artificial sports facilities is, in my opinion, fraught with danger. The contractors that function in this market are not all the same and should be compared very carefully in terms of their overall configuration and operational capability.
Of course, market forces dictate that there will always be new starters and people entering and leaving the market on an ongoing basis, but the company you choose to work with will need careful thought in terms of long term warranty offers and design and build capabilities, both now and into the future. Companies range from management style offerings, whereby the
PC APRIL/MAY 2015 I 105
On a recent project, I quickly became aware of an outdoor swimming pool that had been buried some decades beforehand and backfilled with contaminated and inappropriate
material to build on
general building of the facilities. Any organic matter or inorganic mineral material would also be stripped as part of the topsoil component, as it is unsuitable to build upon. Some sites are acute in terms of their geotechnical nature and status and detailed consideration will need to be made to formulate a successful tender package for contractors. You can, in the instance of small schemes, push the onus of investigation onto the contractor but, in terms of competent information production, ideally this data should be gathered beforehand. Again, a suitable procurement programme will allow you to do this formally and properly. In terms of costs, the greater the understanding of the site, the more accurate the budget will be. An example of this is a reduction in stone depth, which may or may not be acceptable depending upon soils data that has been prepared. Information gathering can actually lead to design savings on site (value engineering) because a sound construction philosophy can be adopted based on evidence rather than guess work. Contractors will generally err on the side of caution with unknowns.
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