First grain of sand to be poured at Trafalgar Park

Posted by Nelson City Council on 14 January 2010

The new turf at Trafalgar Park takes a step closer to the finish line Monday with the pouring of the first bag of recycled glass sand that forms the turf’s base.

Mayor Kerry Marshall has the honour of dumping the first grains onto the base of the existing soil at Trafalgar Park that makes up the ‘sand carpet’ through which grass will begin to grow in the coming months.

“I’m thrilled that Nelson is the first in New Zealand to use a recycled glass sand turf. I hope we’ve set an example about good, sustainable practice, but really it’s just the smart thing to do. Trafalgar Park will be an exceptional facility in many ways after this upgrade, but it’ll be leading the country with its terrific new turf.”

Recycled glass sand is an environmentally sustainable material because it is readily available and it doesn’t take away from existing natural resources of sand that are in limited supply. The amount used for the Trafalgar Park carpet turf equals approximately 7% of the glass recycled annually in the South Island. 

Recycled glass sand has many advantages over regular sand:

  • readily available where natural sand is dwindling
  • can be manufactured to the exact grading required and, each year when a fresh top coat is applied to replenish lost sand, it can be manufactured to the exact gradient of the existing sand – near impossible to replicate with natural sand
  • saves money in years to come because adding the annual top coat to the turf will cost less with a readily available material

All but 5% of the sand is used for the ‘sand carpet.’ After, contractors will lay the seed and follow with the remaining sand on top. Over the next 20 weeks, the seed will burst into green growth that will look like a full grass turf and eventually root down four inches into the sand carpet.

Displays of the turf that’s being built are available on display at Civic House and the Elma Turner Library so residents can see how the turf is created and watch the grass grow through the sand carpet.

 

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