The weather is affecting us as much as everyone: a great deal to do but no chance of getting on with any outdoor work.
To cheer us all up we dug out this picture as a reminder of better days.
All the best to everyone for 2010 - and roll on spring!
Watch the video above (or follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL21kFYxPE8) to see how we built the world’s first rugby pitch using Fibrelastic at Parc y Scarlets in Wales. This was a ground breaking project in a top class venue - completed ahead of time and on budget. Of course, what we did at Parc y Scarlets we can do for you!
Our hopes of flying 140 tonnes of chalk to the top of the hill as part of the restoration of the Alton Barnes white horse in Wiltshire have been thwarted by poor weather. You can see just how poor visibility has been in the picture below.
In all only half the 300 bags have so far been airlifted to the top of Milk Hill which lies in the middle of a site of special scientific interest, hence the use of a helicopter rather lorries. You can read more on the BBC web site by clicking on the image below 
We’re busy just now with the creation of the practice area for the Ryder Cup to be held at the Celtic Manor resort in 2010. The first picture below, which is taken from high above the Usk Valley (that’s the River Usk flowing through at the bottom) shows the area we have prepared ready for drilling. The second pictures shows the green created from turf which we lifted and relocated from Wentworth Golf Course last Sunday: just like that!
We’re proud to announce that we have had our Environmental Management System accredited to ISO 14001 across the entire range of our activities. “We have a very different range of services to most businesses in our sector” says Gareth Rees, our Chief Executive. “Our conventional landscaping work is supplemented by work on creating state-of-the art sports surfaces such as the one at Parc y Scarlets, and environmental mitigation work on things like the pipeline through the Brecon Beacons: the largest such project ever undertaken. Next week, for example, we start work on a Natural England-funded project restoring an historic white horse on the Wiltshire Downs.” Gaining the accreditation for our environmental management systems puts a seal of approval on the way our entire team try to work with the environment in all of our work – much of which is involved anyway in creating, maintaining or protecting habitats for a huge variety of flora and fauna.
We’re proud to announce that we have had our Environmental Management System accredited to ISO 14001 across the entire range of our activities.
“We have a very different range of services to most businesses in our sector” says Gareth Rees, our Chief Executive. “Our conventional landscaping work is supplemented by work on creating state-of-the art sports surfaces such as the one at Parc y Scarlets, and environmental mitigation work on things like the pipeline through the Brecon Beacons: the largest such project ever undertaken. Next week, for example, we start work on a Natural England-funded project restoring an historic white horse on the Wiltshire Downs.”
Gaining the accreditation for our environmental management systems puts a seal of approval on the way our entire team try to work with the environment in all of our work – much of which is involved anyway in creating, maintaining or protecting habitats for a huge variety of flora and fauna.
Last Friday our Chief Executive Gareth Rees flew from Heathrow to Lansing in Michigan via Chicago to visit the sportsturf researchers at Michigan State University (who have undertaken vital testing of the Greentech ITM system) before travelling to Washington to join up with other delegates of a Welsh Assembly Trade Delegation to the United States.
The flight arrangements were far from smooth. Having arrived at Chicago to connect for Lansing Mother Nature entered, stage left, with different plans: a storm meant his connecting flight was cancelled until Saturday morning. After a six hour wait he eventually got booked onto a flight and went and found a hotel room since sleeping in the airport didn’t exactly appeal. He had no luggage and so no clothes: but then that was the same for many people.
On Saturday last he met with Dr Jim Crum and Alex Kowalewski of Michigan State University and looked around their sportsturf research centre. They showed him the college facilities which Gareth says are excellent. Alex explained the research he was doing with drainage and they also looked at the research site for the modules - see the picture.
It wasn’t all work: on Saturday Dr Crum invited Gareth home for a meal with his wife, Alex and his wife, Heidi and Dr Trey Rogers and his wife. Both Drs Rogers and Crum have been involved in the GreenTech system since it was first introduced, doing the research on the system and materials used in the construction. Gareth also visited the acclaimed Spartans Stadium at the University which is a permanent modular pitch.
Planes trains and automobiles permitting we hope to bring you more news from Gareth’s trip sometime soon!
Our work on the rugby pitches for the University of Wales at the Cyncoed campus is going well. These pictures show us topdressing after the installation of the drains.
Now all the fibresand has been korrowed off at Ninian Park we continue to remove the rest of the pitch. For a fuller description of our work at the old home of The Bluebirds visit http://www.inscapesonline.co.uk/category/news/
We are celebrating a string of successes with new contracts worth up to £500k following a £100k investment in new specialist sports contracting equipment. Contracts on sports pitches at the University of Wales, at Cardiff City and at Morlais Castle Golf Club are all described and pictured below and have added to our success in the year so far which was already defying the gloomy mood.
“As well as these very substantial contracts in the world of sport, we’re once again undertaking new and highly specialised environmental work in the Brecon Beacons and enjoying considerable success with general landscaping,” says our Chief Executive, Gareth Rees.
The contracts for the University of Wales are at the Cyncoed campus and involve improving drainage, korrowing-off and re-seeding two rugby pitches. At Cardiff City INSCAPES are responsible for moving pitch material from the Bluebird’s old Ninian Park ground to a new training facility adjacent to the new Cardiff City Stadium and for undertaking general landscaping there. At Morlais Castle Golf Club large scale turfing around a pond has been undertaken together with the re-seeding of 25k square metres of fairway and practice areas. At Margam Discovery Centre owned by Neath and Port Talbot Borough Council, extensive seeding of both turfgrass and wild flower mixes has been carried out.
The investment in raking and trenching equipment, top dressing machinery and a stone hopper means that INSCAPES can handle more and larger projects at the same time as well as work more efficiently on site. “We pride ourselves not only on the quality of the work we undertake but our ability to deliver completed projects on time and on budget, says Gareth Rees.
