The Shire of Dardanup has made strides in ensuring Glen Huon Reserve’s playing surface will soon be ready for action.
The Shire installed subsoil drainage last month after the council had allocated $135,000 to the project in August.
Last year, council unveiled a $6.6 million upgrade of facilities at Glen Huon Reserve.
Celebrations were silenced after waterlogging and drainage problems hindered play during multiple South West Football League matches.
Shire of Dardanup engineering and development services director Luke Botica said the works had been finished before Christmas.
The project saw 25 100-millimetre drains installed under the playing surface at six metre spacings.
Mr Botica said they were now waiting for the grass to grow over the newly-installed trenches.
He predicted the process would take place over the next four to six weeks.
“We’re hoping the warm weather combined with irrigation can get those trenches closed up,” he said.
“We know it is going to improve the oval dramatically, compared to what we experienced last winter.
“This sort of drainage will remove a lot of that surface water that we had last winter and should actually produce a good playing surface for the football season.”
Mr Botica was adamant the Shire had contingencies should the playing surface degrade during this year’s SWFL season.
“There’s different techniques we can do, if there was a bit more water on the oval we could do some coring and use what we call the ‘earthquake machine’, so basically that vibrates the ground so the water can go through the surface a lot easier,” he said.
“We’re not expecting any problems – the drainage we’re putting in is quite extensive.
“We don’t see there being any issues this winter.”
The Shire has since planned to source Government funding for a full oval restoration.
In his report to council last year, Mr Botica said a full-redevelopment of Glen Huon Oval was dependent on funding availability as well as final plans for the Eaton Town Centre and Eaton Fair’s expansion.
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