MJ Abbott

Construction of football and cricket pitches

Berkeley Homes, Broadacres Development, Southwater

Project summary

Sports facilities for new housing scheme

On the back of delivering a number of large sports and landscaping projects for Berkeley Homes, MJ Abbott successfully negotiated the contract to provide 16 acres of sports facilities for a new housing scheme in Southwater, near Horsham.

MJ Abbott employed the services of Jonathan Smith of Geo-Turf to act as turf consultant for the project.

The project comprised the following scope of works:

  • Rotovating and removal of vegetation layer from 65,000m² of existing fields
  • Remove and salvage as much topsoil as possible, stockpiled for re-spread
  • Cut and fill bulk earthworks to achieve designed pitch levels
  • Re-spread topsoil to consolidated depths and grades
  • Installation of primary drainage laterals at 3.5m centres
  • Installation of manually operated irrigation system
  • Import, spread and ameliorate 1,300 tonnes of sand into existing topsoil
  • Cultivate and seed all sports areas
  • Installation of 15 wicket cricket square to be used by Southwater Cricket Club
  • Creation of landscaped perimeters complete with wild flower seeding, fencing and footpaths
  • 18 months’ sports turf maintenance including installation of secondary drainage slits.

The project was completed in 2019.