Day 17 - Thursday 24 May - Installing longitudinal connecting drains

Wide angle shot of the trench cutting operation.

Close up of the tractor towing the drain cutter.

Close up of the hopper full of gritty sand.

Three blades simultaneously dig the 150mm deep trenches.

The soil removed from the trenches is lifted by the elevator.

Soil removed from the trenches is collected in an accompanying trailer.

The different textures of the two types of sand can be seen.

One of the piles of gritty sand at the bottom of the main car park.

The hopper needs to be continuously fed with sand.

The hopper being filled with sand.

Close up of the gritty sand filled into the trenches.

The soil dug from the trenches is of a very fine grade top-soil.

More sand has arrived ready for the final covering.

Artics are arriving regularly throughout the day.

The soil dug from the trenches is taken off site.

Having completely covered the whole pitch area with sand the next step is to cut narrow trenches approximately 150mm deep along the length of the pitch.   The trenches are filled with a coarser grade of sand.   Because the lateral drains contain gravel up to the surface of the soil level, the longitudinal trenches cut across the lateral drains allowing  water to drain off the pitch into the lateral drains.

The longitudinal trenches are spaced 50cm apart and are cut three at a time in each pass.