Material storage bays

Ever since the fire in 2007 destroyed the Greenkeeping sheds, machinery and irrigation system. We have rebuilt something better than we had before. 

The material storage bays for our sands, top dressings and pathway materials was always on the list.

Some of you may have noticed the bays have now been built at the far end of the car park where we have stored material for the last 7 years have finally become a reality thanks to John Braziers engineering genius and amazing planning with help from us the greenstaff and Eric (our digger man). This has been a great project to do over the last two weeks especially as the rain hasn't stopped! 

The board made the decision to make these a priority as part of the plan to tidy up the car park area (see picture above of how it used to look). Having materials lying loose always looked untidy but more importantly it meant there was always some wasteage. 

The plans that John produced were very professional. We looked at many different styles, shapes and angles (Arctic lorry turning circles+ widths etc) before selecting the plans above. These were not only cost effective (sleepers and RSJ) but could be built by the greenstaff. In the end we decided to build 2.5 bays rather than 3 as this still allowed access to the container in the corner. 

I will try to give a quick over view of the last two weeks- 

The greenstaff cleared the remaining top soils and sands out of the bay area (creating a temporary area close by). John then marked the areas out with cones before marking them with spray paint. At this point Gill Brazier, Johns better half joined in (Gill is also an Engineer) and together they marked the plans on the floor in great detail (plus I think enjoyed using my spray guns:-) 

 

 The foundations were marked out in red with the line required for the sleepers in blue. 

Eric then arrived with a breaker and started to break the Tarmac up ready for digging out the next day.

The foundations were then dug out to 1/2 metre wide. 1 metre long and 2ft deep. 

Some of the double foundations were dug out together.  

All the sleepers were then numbered and measured. They were then grouped in sixes by a letter. This meant that each group of 6 were the same size and the RSJs could be put in tight against them. (While John was measuring he noticed two that were to big so these were chainsawed down to the correct lengths).

Each wall of sleepers (to be built) was given a letter which represented the sleeper lengths. 

Once we had dug out the foundations for the back wall we started to move the RSJ's into place. These had been stored in our yard and were moved into place. 

The optimum lettered sleeper was then placed at the bottom as the RSJs were lowered into place. This also held them in position during concreting. 

 

With the back wall and first of the side RSJ's in place it was time to adjust ready for the concrete poor. 

 

Mean while Kevin and Martin started cutting the reinforcement mesh into the correct sizes and cutting out the RSJ shapes. 

The concrete then arrived and was poored in. 

The reinforcement mesh and L bars were then added to the concrete. 

As the cement went off the levels and any adjustment were made. 

The next day the sleepers were placed in the back wall according to there letter. 

The next stage was to dig out the foundations for the side walls(this wasn't done at first so the concrete lorry could get access to all the back wall holes). 

Another daily issue- the pumping out of the foundations as these were filling due to the heavy rain. 

All 15 RSJ's were now in place and ready for concreting. 

Again the concrete was poored with reinforcement mesh and L bars added.

Finally the sleepers were added to the side walls. 

The bays were now finished and the stock materials were placed back into the bays. 

And here's the team that built them.L-R Kev, Eric Butler (digger/looks), Lee, Robin, John Brazier (architect/engineer and worker), Martin and myself (taking the photo). All the greenstaff. 

A great job by everybody. It will improve the car park and the way in which we use our materials with less wasteage. A special thanks to John for giving up so much time to help. 

Matt