SOILCARE

The show must go on

With the Royal unveiling of the renovated Memorial to the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Royal Albert Hall just one month away, C & P Soilcare helped ensure a major development project was completed on time.

Unveiled by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh last month, the renovated Memorial was removed in 1998 when the whole South Steps area was dismantled and excavated under the direction of Taylor Woodrow to accommodate extensive plant rooms, a car park, loading bay and other facilities as part of the Royal Albert Hall's £69m development programme.

The major building work completed, the landscaping schedule was tight. "Part of our remit was to complete four giant planters - the largest measuring 25m x 15m, with a depth of up to 3m," says Chris Matthams, of sub-contractors Carillion London Paving - the London-based natural stone paving and hard landscaping division of Carillion plc. "By November we had installed drainage membranes, pipes and chambers and layered the planters with gravel, sand, subsoil and topsoil. "Over winter the high rainfall caused the top and sub-soil interface to compact, impeding drainage in two of the planters.

In April, when the soft landscaping was due to start, the soil was waterlogged. With only weeks to go before the ceremony, we needed to move quickly." C & P Soilcare, who specialise in tackling problems in drainage and plant growth caused by compaction and poor soil structure, were brought in to help.

"Using our Terralift system we injected compressed air and nutrients into the planter soil at depth," says John Warren of C & P Soilcare - based at Nedging near Ipswich. "This creates a network of lateral and vertical fissures through the soil profile to establish better drainage, aeration and water storage. "Flakes of dried milled seaweed were blasted into the fissures. These can expand eightfold when moist, helping to keep the fissures open and increase the water storage capacity of the root zone. This helps prevent water logging and encourages healthy root growth of turf, trees and shrubs."

With the drainage problem resolved, planting was able to commence giving the finishing touches to the development project in time for the Royal ceremony. The re-opening of the South Steps coincided with the opening of the Hall's 130th summer season, which includes a return of English National Ballet's stunning production of Romeo and Juliet, following its outstanding success in 1998, and culminates in 'the world's greatest classical music festival', the annual BBC Proms.

C & P Soilcare Ltd
Unit 3 Bush Farm, Nedging, Ipswich, Suffolk. IP7 7BL United Kingdom
Phone : +44 1449 741012
Fax : +44 1449 743006
E-mail : sales@soilcare.co.uk