Racecourse scoops top environmental award

- 12 May 2010

Ffoas racecourse has scooped a top engineering award for its green design and construction.

The Carmarthenshire track won a special award for sustainability from the Institution of Civil Engineers Wales Cymru.

Judges said that the team behind the project — including Powell Dobson Architects and principal contractor Walters UK — had "effectively rewritten the British Horse Racing Authority guidelines" for new racecourses by building a turf all-weather facility on the site of a former open-cast mine in Trimsaran.

The judges particularly praised the project's re-use of local materials, it's run-off water collection system, and the "swapping" of top soil from Pembrey airport for a runway extension.

In making the awards, the institution of engineers concluded: "An existing reclamation scheme was re-engineered to give an end use which could never have been envisaged during the period when the site was operating as an open-cast mine. The scheme has provided major environmental benefit and a significant tourism and economic benefit to an area not noted for its economic activity."

Story credit - thisissouthwales.co.uk