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Orange City Council has advised of their decision to award the contract for turfing eight new sporting fields to the Never Stop Water Group, a water and irrigation firm, based in Sydney that specialises in sporting fields.

The NSW Government has committed $59.5 million to the Orange Sports Precinct project.

The timetable for work is expected to have grass sprigs in the ground by around November and while the sporting field specialists come from Sydney, their crew will be living in Orange for months during this project.

On the back of the completed earthworks, the next stage of the project will include the creation of eight full-sized sporting fields and three turf cricket wickets.

Preliminary work will include the installation of underground electrical fittings for future sports field lighting. The equipment includes conduits with draw wires to guide the installation of wiring, as well as service pits for power and communication.

The irrigation and drainage work, which also includes building two water tanks and the installation of pumps, will see trenches dug for underground pipes.

The new sporting fields will be built with:

• trenched-in sub-surface drains
• an automatic irrigation system
• 200mm sand-topped fields, and
• final grass turfing which will include the planning of Santa Anna sprigs

Orange Mayor Jason Hamling is looking forward to the next stage of the sports precinct project getting underway and advised "With the major earthworks stage now behind us, it's been good to stand on Forest Road and see to the shape of the stadium and the sporting fields emerge.

"There'll be a lot more preliminary work before we see the fields turn green with new grass, but that work will mean these new fields become the best in Orange.

"Some sporting fields in Orange struggle after heavy rain. For the first time we're installing a high-quality drainage system topped with 200mm of specially formulated sand that becomes the growing medium for the hard-wearing couch grass.

"Currently we have to shut fields if we have too much rain. The plan is that these fields will be able to be playable much more often after rain."

Orange City Council Sports & Recreation Committee chair Tammy Greenhalgh is pleased the work will begin towards the end of Winter and added "Orange can usually expect the kind of winter weather which gets in the way of trench digging, so the crews are not expected on site until late July.

"The timetable for work is expected to have grass sprigs in the ground by around November. It's expected to be the middle of next year before this stage is complete.

"While this specialist business comes from Sydney, I'm pleased that their crew will be living here for months during this project and that they'll be drawing on local suppliers. I understand the sand will be coming from Eugowra.

"I was pleased to learn that the eight new fields will be surrounded by a fence to acts as a ball barrier. It will be a low, metre-high fence in most areas, but alongside carparks the fence will be six metres high.

"The three 24 metre x 12 metre cricket wickets will be placed between the football fields. It's another sign that this sport precinct will be used all year round by local teams."

Image. Orange sport preceint progress pre turfing. Credit: Orange City Council

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