The team have started work on a drainage project to try and cure flooding problems at a racehorse gallop.

The problem has been caused by the sand and wax surface blocking the layer of permeable Tarmac underneath which is not allowing the surface water to reach the drains below. The solution to this is to strip the existing surface using a 360 excavator, place the surface to one side laid on a membrane, then once we have removed the surface down to the Tarmac layer then the drainage work starts.

This involves setting out points at 25m intervals along the 880m length of gallop, cutting a slot through the tarmac 150mm wide by 3m in length across the width of the gallop, hand digging the trench to a depth of 150mm into the drainage stone layer beneath, laying a perforated twin wall drainage pipe wrapped in geotextile in the trench. then repeat this operation 30 times and we are ready for the surface to be replaced along with 150 tonnes of new surface