1. Project Overview
This project focuses on the foundation renovation and drainage system upgrading of a large comprehensive sports field in the Middle East, which is mainly used for community sports events, daily citizen fitness and youth sports training. The core construction part is the laying of a professional drainage layer for the artificial turf foundation. To solve the long-term drainage defects of the original sports field and improve the site’s adaptability to extreme rainfall weather, the customer customized a complete set of geosynthetic material solutions, with the core product being 50cm PP drainage cell. All supporting geotechnical materials were purchased in a one-stop manner, realizing integrated construction of foundation stabilization, isolation, filtration and rapid drainage, and finally achieving a comprehensive upgrade of the sports field’s service performance and service life.
Project Location: Middle East (urban public sports complex)
Core Application: Artificial Turf Foundation Drainage & Foundation Stabilization
Core Product: PP 50CM Drainage Board
Core Advantage Realized: Efficient fast drainage during heavy rainfall, no waterlogging on the field, stable foundation structure
2. Client’s Pre-Project Challenges
Before the renovation, the sports field adopted the traditional gravel drainage layer structure, which was a common construction method for early artificial turf venues in the local area. However, affected by the regional climate characteristics and structural defects of traditional materials, the venue had been plagued by multiple problems for a long time, seriously affecting normal use and increasing operation and maintenance costs.
First, extreme rainfall leads to severe field waterlogging. Although the overall climate in the Middle East is dry, short-term intense heavy rainfall occurs frequently in rainy seasons. The traditional gravel drainage layer has large gaps, uneven paving, and slow water seepage and discharge speed. After heavy rain, rainwater cannot be discharged in time, resulting in obvious ponding on the artificial turf surface. It usually takes 3–5 hours for the water to completely seep away, forcing the venue to suspend use, delaying sports events and daily training arrangements, and greatly reducing the venue utilization rate.
Second, the traditional drainage layer is prone to structural failure. The gravel layer is easily compacted under the long-term rolling and trampling of sports activities, resulting in reduced internal voids, blocked drainage channels, and gradual loss of drainage capacity. In addition, fine sediment in the foundation soil is easy to mix into the gravel gap, causing serious blockage. After one to two years of use, the drainage function of the venue basically fails, and partial reconstruction is required every year, resulting in high repeated maintenance costs.
Third, the foundation is unstable and the turf is prone to damage. The uneven settlement of the gravel foundation leads to uneven surface of the artificial turf, bulges and depressions, which not only affects the sports experience but also easily causes sports injuries. At the same time, the long-term humid and waterlogged environment accelerates the aging and peeling of the turf bottom glue, shortening the service life of the expensive artificial turf and bringing greater economic losses to the customer.
Fourth, the traditional construction process is inefficient and costly. The gravel drainage layer requires a large amount of gravel transportation, stacking and manual leveling, with cumbersome construction procedures, long construction period and high labor and transportation costs. Moreover, the gravel layer is heavy, which increases the overall load of the venue foundation, putting forward higher requirements for foundation bearing capacity and further increasing the project investment cost.
3. Full Set of Purchased Geosynthetic Materials (Specifications & Quantities)
To build a long-term stable, high-efficiency and low-maintenance sports field drainage system, the customer purchased a complete set of supporting geosynthetic materials while purchasing the core PP drainage board, covering foundation isolation, filtration, drainage, protection and other links. All materials meet international sports venue construction standards and adapt to the high temperature and dry special climate of the Middle East region. The detailed product specifications and purchase quantities are as follows:
3.1 Core Product: PP 50CM Drainage Cell
Specification: 50cm width, customized plate height 30mm, high-density polypropylene (PP) integral molding, single-piece honeycomb hollow structure, UV-resistant and anti-aging treatment
Purchase Quantity: 12,000 square meters
Function: As the main drainage layer of the artificial turf foundation, it undertakes the core functions of rapid water collection, rapid drainage and foundation load dispersion
3.2 Supporting Material 1: Short-filament Geotextile Filter Fabric
Specification: 200g/m², high permeability, anti-clogging, UV-resistant, wide-width integral weaving
Purchase Quantity: 15,000 square meters
Function: Laid on the upper and lower layers of the drainage board, it plays a role of isolation and filtration, effectively preventing fine soil particles and turf filler from entering the drainage board gap to cause blockage, and ensuring the long-term smoothness of the drainage channel
3.3 Supporting Material 2: HDPE Impermeable Membrane
Specification: 1.5mm thick high-density polyethylene membrane, high tensile strength, corrosion resistance and anti-aging
Purchase Quantity: 10,000 square meters
Function: Laid at the bottom of the drainage layer to prevent underground water from penetrating upward, avoid foundation soil softening, and ensure the overall stability of the venue foundation
3.4 Supporting Material 3: Geogrid for Foundation Reinforcement
Specification: Biaxial tensile plastic geogrid, tensile strength 30kN/m, high toughness and anti-deformation
Purchase Quantity: 8,000 square meters
Function: Reinforce the venue foundation soil, improve foundation bearing capacity, prevent foundation uneven settlement, and maintain the flatness of the turf surface
3.5 Supporting Material 4: Perforated Drainage Pipe
Specification: DN110 HDPE perforated drainage pipe, circular hole uniform water collection
Purchase Quantity: 600 meters
Function: Cooperate with the drainage board system to collect the drained rainwater in a centralized manner and discharge it to the municipal drainage pipeline to form a complete closed-loop drainage system
4. On-Site Construction Scheme
The construction team adopted a standardized layered laying process according to the venue foundation conditions and material characteristics. First, level and compact the original foundation soil, lay HDPE impermeable membrane and biaxial geogrid to complete foundation reinforcement and anti-seepage treatment. Then lay the 50cm PP drainage cell in a fully paved manner with lap joint sealing treatment to ensure no gaps in the drainage layer. Finally, cover the upper layer with geotextile filter fabric, and carry out artificial turf laying and fine leveling after the overall drainage system is fixed. The whole construction process is simple and efficient, no large-scale mechanical equipment is required, and the construction period is greatly shortened compared with the traditional gravel process.
5. Post-Construction Operation Effects & Advantages
After the completion of the project and half a year of actual operation and extreme rainfall test, the new drainage system has completely solved all the pre-construction problems of the venue, and the overall performance has reached the international first-class standard of public sports venues, bringing significant improvements in multiple dimensions.
First, the heavy rainfall rapid drainage function is fully realized. Benefiting from the integral honeycomb hollow structure of the 50cm PP drainage cell, the internal drainage channel is smooth and unobstructed with large water flux. In the face of local typical short-term heavy rainfall, the surface rainwater can quickly infiltrate into the drainage layer and be discharged in a centralized manner. The venue can complete full water drainage within 20–30 minutes after heavy rain, with no surface ponding, no muddy site, and the venue can be put into normal use immediately, completely solving the problem of venue suspension caused by rainfall. The overall venue utilization rate has increased from 65% to more than 95%.
Second, the drainage system is permanently anti-clogging and maintenance-free. With the matching protection and filtration of geotextile, impurities and fine particles are completely isolated outside the drainage channel. The PP drainage board will not be deformed or compacted under long-term external force, and the internal drainage space is always stable. There is no need for annual cleaning and reconstruction, which reduces the later operation and maintenance cost of the venue by more than 60% compared with the traditional gravel layer.
Third,the foundation is stable and the turf service life is extended. The combined system of geogrid reinforcement + PP drainage cell layer load dispersion effectively avoids foundation settlement and turf unevenness. The dry and stable foundation environment prevents the aging and damage of the artificial turf bottom, greatly extending the service life of the turf and reducing the frequency of turf replacement and renovation.
Fourth, the project cost is optimized and the construction efficiency is improved. Compared with the traditional gravel drainage system, the lightweight PP drainage board reduces the overall foundation load by 40%, saves a lot of gravel raw materials, transportation and labor costs, and the comprehensive project cost is reduced by about 20%. At the same time, the modular laying method shortens the construction period by more than half, realizing rapid completion and put-into-use of the project.
6. Customer Feedback
The customer highly recognized the one-stop geosynthetic material solution and the final project effect. They stated that the matched PP 50CM drainage cell layer and supporting geotechnical materials perfectly adapt to the local climatic and venue use conditions, thoroughly solve the long-standing waterlogging problem of the sports field, and realize low maintenance and long-term stable operation of the venue. The integrated procurement and construction scheme saves a lot of time and cost for the project, and they will continue to adopt the same supporting material system in the subsequent expansion and renovation of other sports venues.