Sports Pitch Irrigation

With prolonged periods of dry weather, sportsfields can become increasingly difficult to play on. In addition, summer seeding or turfing requires regular watering to ensure its sucessful establishment.

 

Depending on budget Access Irrigation can offer fully installed irrigation systems to water the entire sports field, travelling sprinklers which will water the pitch in one or two passes or temporary systems where risers are moved along the pitch to water a section at a time. Costs vary from between a few hundred pounds for a temporary system to £20,000 for a fully automated system.

Fully Automated Sports Irrigation

A fully automated sports irrigation system will consist of a water storage tank and pump; control systems; pipework around the pitch and pop-up sprinklers mounted either around the perimeter of the pitch, or placed at intervals across the pitch with turf caps to fully hide the sprinklers from view.

The control system can be linked to an on-site weather station to provide real time, on-site data for evapo-transpiration prediction.

For clubs and schools with multiple pitches, the pump, tank and control equipment can operate a number of pitches.

Travelling Sprinklers

For clubs and schools on a smaller budget, a travelling sprinkler can be used to water single or multiple pitches. The system includes a water storage tank and pump; pipework to each pitch and a single travelling sprinkler.

The travelling sprinkler consists of a water powered wheeled tractor unit to move the sprinkler along. Before use the unit is placed at one end of the pitch, and a steel wire run out to a sturdy post at the other end. Mounted on top of the tractor cart is a variable diameter sprinkler. As the tractor unit travels slowly down the length of the pitch, the sprinkler rotates and waters half of the pitch width. Generally 1/2 of a pitch is watered each night, putting down the equivalent of one weeks rainfall - allowing a single travelling sprinkler to water 3 or 4 pitches a week.

Temporary Pitch Sprinklers

If cost is a big factor, a series of temporary sprinklers can be run of a standpipe, providing it has a reasonably good water supply. If the pitch is divided into 12 strips, each 8m wide and the width of the pitch a line of six sprinklers will water the strip from a standpipe. These sprinklers will need to be moved progressively down the length of the pitch - generally the sprinklers will be run for 2-3 hours to place a weeks water (20mm) on each strip before the sprinkler is moved.