New pitches going in at Adelaide Oval

Adelaide Oval is moving a step closer to being match ready with the roll out of new pitches getting underway.

The first of eight pitches have been installed in the centre of the new oval in what is a painstaking process, with each one taking more than an hour to install.

Weighing in at three tones each, a 27-tonne transporter is needed to shift each one into place.

Curator Damian Hough said: “It will be a couple of day’s process, so we’re looking at planning on by Friday night all the pitches are in.”

Oval curators have used the same soil and grass as the previous pitch to maintain similar characteristics.

Infrastructure Minister Tom Koutsantonis said: “We’ve taken the very best of Adelaide Oval and put it together with the best part of the new Adelaide Oval.”

Today’s milestone paves the way for the turf to be laid out next month.

It will be road tested during the Sheffield Shield match starting November 13, after an earlier match was shifted to Glenelg to buy more time.

The true test for the ground will come when 35,000 spectators cram into the ground for the second Ashes test starting on December 5.

Premier Jay Weatherill said the oval is just one piece of the Riverbank Precinct puzzle, and he has announced a new authority to oversee planning for the whole area.

“We’ve seen this successfully work in Southbanks in Melbourne and in Brisbane, and we intend to give this statutory force,” he said.

He has denied it is a move to sideline the Adelaide City Council.