3rd September 2009
Officially the first day of spring, Tuesday, September 1, 2009, also marks one of the most important milestones in the construction of Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium.
With parks and shops and restaurants, not to mention the amazing Sky Car, the stadium and its environs will attract visitors and locals seven days a week, 365 days a year. But, ultimately, it’s thanks to soccer that we have this sparkling new diamond in the tiara of Durban’s attractions – and a key component of the Moses Mabhida Stadium is the pitch.
While everyone can’t wait to sample the stadium’s many attractions, it is the pitch that all soccer fans want to know about. Construction of the layers commenced in June 2009, while the growing of the grass started off-site in December 2008 – and Tuesday, September 1, 2009, is the day it all comes together and we start laying the grass.
The Moses Mabhida pitch has been designed to the highest standards and meets the requirements of major sporting bodies such as FIFA, IRB, SAFA and SARFU.
It is a “premier playing field” comprising an upper layer of high-draining, non-compacting sand growing medium over a gravel layer with subsoil drains.
This type of pitch allows for better drainage – at a rate of in excess of 100mm an hour – while still allowing for excellent grass growth. It can also be used in wet conditions that would render other grounds unplayable.
Grass
Because the pitch is designed to accommodate various sports played during different seasons, two types of grasses will be installed: Warm Season and Cool Season.
The Warm Season grass, Tifsport (Cynodon Hybrid), was established first and grown off-site by means of sprigging (a method of plant propagation that uses stem cuttings instead of seeds).
The Cynodon species of grass originates from southern Africa, and the TifSport hybrid was developed for use on sports fields by Dr Wayne Hanna, a geneticist with the Agricultural Research Service, the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department Of Agriculture, working at the University Of Georgia Coastal Plains Experiment Station in Tifton, Georgia.
As the grass was grown off-site the sand layer laid down at the stadium includes Stalok Fibre, which strengthens the root zone and makes it more flexible, thereby increasing the turf’s load bearing capacity. This helps to improve the versatility of the playing surface and hence the multipurpose requirements of the stadium as a whole.
Stalok Fibre also allows for an established playable pitch grown off-site to be imported and in use within 72 hours.
For winter sports, the Warm Season Tifsport will be over seeded with the following Cool Season grasses: 60 % Perennial Ryegrass and 40 % Kentucky Bluegrass.
Drainage
This is through Megaflow 300 “lay-flat” drainage pipes laid in a herringbone pattern. The pitch is divided into four drainage zones each of which will drain into 300mm HD uPVC pipes connected to a small underground sump – for re-use of irrigation water.
The surrounding grassed areas, those outside of the playing surface, will be drained independently and thus will not affect the drainage of the main pitch area.
Irrigation
This is fully automatic. A sump located within the outer pitch area will collect run-off from the pitch through the sub-soil drainage system during irrigation and when it rains. This harvested water will be pumped to a larger storage tank for re-use, thereby helping improve the environmental foot print of the stadium.
The pitch has been design and built by Ibhola Lethu Consortium (ILC), which has been responsible for the pitch design at Coca-Cola Park (formerly Ellis Park Stadium), Johannesburg’s Soccer City and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, among others.