This is the status of the work

Like. Great joy for Frederic Ibs and Sven-Ole Busch from the Kiel Seahawks: On the grounds of the Kiel football club FC Kilia Kiel on Hasseldieksdammer Weg, after a long preparation period, the new turf is being laid on the newly completed multifunctional sports field.

“We are very happy that the new field can soon be inaugurated by our baseball club. There will be new LED floodlights and it will be much easier to play on the ground,” says Ibs, “the conditions are completely different, much more professional.”

Ibs and Busch are currently playing with their club on the Moorteichwiese. But the conditions there are unacceptable and hardly allow for good, effective training. The place is far too wet, the water builds up and cannot drain away properly. As a result, many games do not take place and are simply canceled.

What’s special: The multifunctional sports field is suitable for soccer, baseball and football. It is scheduled to be inaugurated in January next year. A total of around 14,000 square meters of turf will be laid, the costs for this amount to 180,000 euros.

And: It is a major sporting project with total costs of around 2.8 million euros. The state of Schleswig-Holstein will cover a share of 250,000 euros. Magdalena Finke, State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior for Sport, explains: “We are very happy to take part in this project. Schleswig-Holstein is a sports country and popular sports in particular are immensely important and should always be supported. It is therefore natural for us to provide support at this point.”

Work at FC Kilia Kiel finished at the end of the week

The turf comes from a company in Holland, and laying the entire 14,000 square meters will take about three days – if the weather is good and it doesn’t rain. 14 employees are responsible for this, and they are instructed and supervised by foreman Sebastian Groß. “I am very happy with my people, everything is going according to plan and we are making good progress. If things continue like this, we will be finished with everything relating to the turf by the end of the week,” says Groß.

Laying turf is a complex undertaking. First of all, you have to make sure that the ground on which the turf will later lie is level. “This is important so that rainwater can drain away. The rolled turf is then laid on a so-called turf base layer,” reports the responsible landscape architect Arne Siller.

The grasses of the rolled turf are special sports turf grasses that have to be one thing above all: durable. And that in both dry and extremely wet conditions. That’s why they have a very dense turf that, for example, catches the footballers’ tackles and doesn’t break down.

The city of Kiel takes stock

Work on the second construction phase began in spring 2024, and it should be finished at the end of this year and training can begin again. Philip Schüller, head of the Office for Sports Promotion, praises the current status of the construction work: “We have made very good progress, we are only a week behind schedule, but we will definitely make up for it quickly.”

In addition, further extensive renovation measures were carried out in 2023, such as the installation of a new drainage system and the renewal of the floodlight system – with the aim of making the site more usable and, above all, independent of the weather.

KN