Transforming a Wellington sports field with artificial turf
Overview
Visit Nairnville Park in Khandallah and you’ll find a playing field with artificial turf - just the third such surface in New Zealand. Chances are, even in the wet, it will be busy with football (soccer) or rugby players. Because with its new surface, usage has increased exponentially.
The $900,000 Wellington City Council (WCC) project is a good demonstration of how artificial turf can transform a playing field. Perhaps the best indicator of success - the Council is now planning to lay artificial turf at other fields around the Capital.
Background & partners
Wellington City Council sports fields are under significant pressure. The city has a relatively high rainfall, an average of 1246mm a year. Soils are predominantly clay and poor draining. Almost a quarter of the fields sit on old landfills, and are often poor draining and prone to subsidence.
The pressure is escalating. There’s increasing demand from sports groups, particularly football, which has had a boom in participation. Recent years have seen more sports events held and significant growth in professional codes. The city’s population has grown from 157,719 in 1996 to 179,466 in 2006 – up 13.8%. In addition, greater overlap of the winter and summer seasons means there’s often now little time for fields to recover and have rehabilitation work.
“Sports fields around the city are being used above their maximum sustainable usage,” says Glenn McGovern, the Council’s Recreation Projects Manager. “Winter is a real pressure point. Ground closures regularly occur.”
During the very wet Wellington winter of 2008, for example, some football and rugby youth grades had around half their games cancelled. Senior fixtures were also significantly affected. “That caused a lot of frustration for players, organisers, spectators, and volunteers,” Glenn says.
The Council first invested in artificial sports surfaces over 25 years ago, with Newtown Park athletic track and Mt Albert hockey stadium. Artificial surfaces for netball and tennis were installed at Haitaitai in 2002. “We have a long history of using artificial surfaces – but not for rugby and football,” he says.
Around the world, artificial turf is booming – since the start of the millennium, Europe’s seen over 5000 such surfaces installed for football alone. It is now common in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, North America and Australia. The only other artificial turfs large enough for competition games in New Zealand at mid-2009 are at a New Zealand College Rifles field in Auckland and at North Harbour Stadium.
Artificial turf can sustain far greater use than a soil or sand based field. It can also be played on in most weather conditions. The Wellington Rugby Football Union and Capital Football made submissions in favour of artificial turf fields, in the 2008/09 WCC Draft Annual Plan. In 2008, Council began planning a solution for Nairnville Park.
The park was seen as an ideal location to pilot artificial turf. It’s a community sports hub, with a busy recreation centre and a number of fields. The field had suffered from poor drainage for decades, as Glenn recalls: “I was sent a letter from a former All Black, Brian Steele, who played there in the 1930s. He said that it was a mud heap back then, and it’s a mud heap now [before the artificial turf].”
The condition of the Nairnville field meant it was poorly utilised. Converting it into a high capacity field would maximise the benefits of Council’s investment.
The initiative
The project was publicised during the planning stages. Some residents expressed concern (due to visual impact) about the proposed perimeter fence. An agreement was later successfully reached to trial a fence-free field for 12 months. An open tendering project led to New Zealand company Sports Technology International NZ Ltd being appointed as lead contractor, with the turf itself manufactured in Australia.
Modern artificial turf is made of polyethelene – it’s nothing like the older style nylon surface, which resembles a pot scrubber and can lead to abrasion burns. The modern turf has 65mm long fibres, which appear almost the same as natural grass. “It’s hard to tell the difference, even when you’re standing on it,” says Glenn.
A 25mm thick rubber shock pad sits under the Nairnville turf. On top are layers of sand and rubber granules, leaving only the top 15-20mm of the fibres showing.
Work commenced in late 2008 and the field’s official opening was in April 2009. The turf itself arrived in 3.6m rolls and was laid much like carpet. This took two weeks, “really going for it,” laughs Glenn. New floodlighting was constructed to maximise usage (there is resource consent for use up to 9pm, seven days a week).
The area of artificial turf measures 85m X 49m. There’s also additional area that can be used for scrummaging, and team warm-up and warm-downs. The budget for the project was a little over $900,000. “We were very fortunate to gain $500,000 in funding from the New Zealand Community Trust. Council funded the balance. Capital Football funded the goalposts,” Glenn explains.
Key benefits
While it’s too early to assess the long-term performance of the artificial turf, immediate results have been excellent. “We’ve had nothing but positive feedback,” says Glenn. As he notes, players, event organisers, clubs and Council all benefit.
- Enhanced usage and reliability. The turf can be played on in rain: “we put a lot of work into the drainage,” Glenn notes. Two weeks after opening, the field was fully booked apart from during school hours.
- Durability. The sand and rubber should only require occasional grooming. The turf itself has a predicted lifespan of 10-15 years. Ideally, a perimeter fence would be installed to help prevent any vandalism to the artificial turf, as well as to control balls and access. While Nairnville Park is currently lacking a fence, if there is damage, sections of the turf can be repaired or replaced (although not as easily as with natural grass).
- Flexibility. The Nairnville field is being used primarily for training rather than for competition, but this could change if required. There are permanent lines marked on the field perimeter and at halfway. Temporary lines can easily be marked as needed, as with natural grass.
- Player safety. With 100 tonnes of sand, plus the rubber granules and the shock pad, artificial turf offers a consistently forgiving playing surface – it’s much softer than a hard-packed summer ground. The polyethelene grass has a slightly greasy texture, and as Glenn says, “we’ve had no reports of grass burns”.
- Reduced maintenance cost. Because of the higher up-front investment, artificial turf has greater depreciation cost than a natural grass field. However, Glenn notes that ongoing maintenance costs are expected to be “significantly reduced”.
The estimated construction cost of a full-sized 3G turf is presently $1.5 million (including floodlighting). The estimated maintenance cost is $5-10,000 per annum. According to research, the estimated total cost of constructing and maintaining an artificial turf over a 10-year period is approximately twice that of a sand-based grass field. However, an artificial surface is able to cope with five to six times the usage of a typical natural grass field … The net cost per hour of use for an artificial surface is much lower than a sand/soil based field if this level of use is achieved.
- WCC report
Looking ahead
Building on the success at Nairnville Park, Wellington City Council is keen to introduce artificial turf on other fields around the city. The draft Long Term Council Community Plan suggests for consideration a field near Rugby League Park (Newtown), Alex Moore Park (Johnsonville), Evans Bay Park, Wakefield Park (Island Bay), Grenada North Park and Ian Galloway Park (Northland). The Wellington Rugby Football Union and Capital Football have made submissions in support of at least 10 artificial turf surfaces.
As Glenn concludes: “Growing grass on fields that are over utilised and in Wellington’s climate is a constant challenge. Having more artificial turf fields would result in greater capacity for training, competition, events, and recreation programmes – plus it would make caring for the grounds a lot easier. Artificial turf is a boost for Wellington all round.”
Contacts and links
To know more about Nairnville Park, visit www.wellington.govt.nz and search ‘Nairnville Park’. You can discuss the project by emailing Glenn McGovern on Glenn.McGovern@wcc.govt.nz or calling (04) 803 8157.
Updated | 05 May 2009.
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