St Michael’s Preparatory School, Otford, Kent
Smith Construction were employed by Traction Sport to design and construct a brand new Hockey Pitch at St Michael’s Preparatory School.
The area where the pitch was going to be built was made up of layers of weathered chalk, boulder chalk and hard chalk with fissures. Smith Construction had to create a very precise drainage, excavation and stabilisation plan, without this plan the pitch was at risk of being unstable, slumping and sliding.
Once Smith Construction had overcome the problematic ground works, we were then challenged by the global pandemic, Covid-19. However, we didn’t let this stop us and continued working throughout to complete this pitch, with strict Covid measures put in place.
Once complete, St Michael’s Preparatory School can boost a brand new, start of the art hockey pitch. Finished with TigerTurf’s Evo Pro carpet, fencing, flood lighting and macadam spectator area.
- Size – 97.40 x 59.00m
- Extensive Cut and Fill works across the area
- Ground stabilisation
- Carpet gripper system
- Alternative synthetic turf colour to the surround
- Brand new LED 8 column floodlighting system
As the Estate manager of a relatively small Prep school, I was tasked with helping our Director of Finance & Operations to deliver an all-weather pitch into our already stunning grounds. From the moment of first meeting Ken and Hannah, they inspired confidence and had a passion for their work. To build a pitch in the side of the north downs was no mean feat, not only do we sit in the Green belt, a conservation area and an area of outstanding natural beauty, but also the amount of ground works required to achieve this was quite unbelievable. If that wasn’t enough, a small detail of Covid 19 came along! During this uncertain time Ken and his wonderful team stepped up and still created a stunning pitch that sits beautifully within our grounds. I cannot speak highly enough of Smith’s, they have repaid our faith in them, with what can only be described as a stunning pitch, not only that, it seems to get better with time. Thank you Ken, and your team. You are a credit to British civil engineering.