The decline in turf condition following construction

    Observations of turf condition at newly constructed facilities invariably confirm that high standards are maintained throughout the first year.  These however decline over time such that conditions are unsatisfactory by the third year .This is often attributed to a lack in competence in the maintenance of the facility by ground staff however natural consolidation, and the detrimental effect this has on the turf environment, is frequently over-looked.  Following construction, a gradual reduction in the size of soil pores occurs through a combination of compaction and the migration of finer particles into the interstices between coarser particles.  This reduces the rate at which water can move through the pitch and increases both the height of the suspended water table and the capillary rise above it.  This gradual, but relentless, deterioration in hydraulic properties manifests itself in a number of ways:

• A wet weak surface that is prone to damage
• Increased susceptibilty to disease and fungal attack
• Insufficient oxygen in the rootzone which weakens the grass and limits rooting depth and turf anchorage
• A reduction in water and nutrient storage / availability, as a result of shallow roots, causing the turf to exist on a knife edge between saturation and drought.

A legacy of this type can be avoided if, during the design phase, the selection process for materials destined for use in the proposed construction involves testing the physical properties of samples that have been compacted to a state that is representative of post-construction conditions following natural consolidation.


Figure 8 Assessment of the mechanical and hydraulic properties of rootzone samples.  It is essential that samples are conducted on samples that have been compacted to a state representative of post-construction conditions following natural consolidation.