Keith Hay Park – Sports Field
Dates
October 2022 – March 2023 – Construction
June 2023 – August 2023 – FIFA Women’s World Cup Maintenance
Description
Green by Nature was engaged to reconstruct Keith Hay Park Number 1 Football
Field. Ultimately it allowed for the park to be used to FIFA specifications – our
Football Ferns used it as their team base and FIFA training venue during the
tournament. The field was judged the second-best training venue in NZ based
on FIFA’s independent turf testing – which is a huge accolade for the team and
Auckland Council
Auckland experienced the wettest summer in many years, with severe flooding occurring four times – including the catastrophic Cyclone Gabrielle during our construction work. Due to the severe damage caused by the storm in New Zealand, the name Gabrielle was retired from the list of regional cyclone names and will never be used to name a storm in that basin again. It was replaced by Gemm for future seasons.
Works included: re-leveling of the fields, installation of new drainage, new irrigation system, and sand carpet in Field Number 1 at Keith Hay Park, Mount Roskill.
Auckland United Football Club – has a large roof – we took advantage of that! We installed six additional 30,000-litre tanks as part of the work – to offset the draw from the town’s water supply to irrigate the field, with 18,000 litres of rainwater that can be used. We modified the way we linked the tanks, so that way, the water level is equalised amongst all the tanks for irrigation supply.
Post each flooding event, the remedial works involved getting it back to prestorm level amounted to a couple of days per event. The team had to move sand back to where it needed to be, brush and groom and reseed in places where there wasn’t sufficient turf cover.
Every time it flooded, we had to do physical treatment to the field, knocking it back a bit. We had to increase the fertilising to help the grass recover, so it meant changing the methodology.
We believe adaptability and flexibility in the maintenance schedule and methodology allowed us to identify the appropriate course of action and put appropriate remediation measures in place.
The field is adjacent to an ecologically sensitive stream – so we increased the
amount of silt socks – providing environmental management to further prevent
any migration of debris.
The upgraded facility was delivered on time for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, meeting all international standards. The field successfully hosted training sessions for multiple national teams during the tournament, receiving high praise from FIFA officials and players alike. The improved drainage and playing surface performed exceptionally well, even during challenging weather conditions.
