Ever since work on the construction of the Anguilla Football Association’s artificial turf field began in late August of this year, The Anguillian has been checking its development and progress. Recently, we had a look at the work on the field and realized that it is moving ahead steadily.
We chanced to find the President of the Anguilla Football Association, Mr. Girdon Connor, on the site conversing with the Contractor, Mr. Franklin. We asked Mr. Connor how he felt about the advancement of the work on the state-of-the-art field.
“I am quite satisfied with how far we have come,” he said. “When we started this project in late August, and I looked at all the work we had to get done – all the clearing of the hard rock and leveling that was required – I was thinking that it would be next year March or so before we would begin to lay the turf. But at this stage the installation of the green turf is underway and lighting is being installed. So I am very happy indeed.
“I am excited to see the high powered lights being put in place, and I am very pleased to see, not only the progress, but the high quality of work that has been done and the speed by which the work has been carried out by the Contractor from Greenfields of Holland. This company had done football fields all around the world, including Africa, Antigua and Dominica. So we are now grateful to them and FIFA for providing us with a facility of this kind for football in Anguilla.”
Mr. Connor said that the field is precisely level. He said that last weekend a team from FIFA came to inspect the work before the laying down of the turf. “The FIFA team highly commended the quality of the work that is being done,” he said. “There is a standard level-ratio that the quality of the field must measure up to, and upon inspection that ratio was spot-on.
“The compactness and drainage was also tested and it all turned out to be perfect. We are indeed thankful for that, and we do appreciate the work of our Contractor and his team of workers.”
We also spoke with the Contractor, Mr. Franklin: “I am extremely impressed and satisfied,” he said. “For us, this is normal, as it is part of the quality work which we usually do. We have been building fields like this over many years. So, I am not really surprised. Everything has worked according to our expectations. The FIFA engineer was here over the weekend,” he said, “and he was ‘super – extremely’ satisfied with the quality of work and the outcome of all the tests he conducted.”
He said that his company, Greenfields of the Netherlands, is a FIFA preferred producer for projects of this kind. “We have a very capable team of workers who we travel with but, of course, we have a few local workmen as well. Currently we have about 22 men in all working here, and I want to compliment them for the great job that they have done.”
He remarked that usually the greatest challenge is to find a crane to lift the tall light poles in place, but he was able to find a very efficient machine for that purpose here, which enabled that part of the work to be done in a rather seamless fashion.
