THE new Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility, at Speers Point, is home to the Hunter's biggest and most expensive jigsaw puzzle - more than 23,000 square metres of it.
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The jigsaw puzzle is the 23-millimetre-thick shock pad that forms the base of the new fully synthetic playing surfaces at the $11.3 million facility.
The shock pad is made up of jigsaw-style pieces about one-metre square, that interlock to cover the entire playing surface prior to the synthetic turf being laid.
With the development of two full-size synthetic fields now complete and the 12 five-a-side synthetic pitches currently being constructed, more than 23,000 square metres of the shock pad will be installed.
From Italy, the shock pad is valued at more than $440,000.
It is one of seven layers in the intricate field structure.
All fields consist of the seven layers including road base, a crusher dust correction layer, geofabric, drainage cell, shock pad, synthetic grass and finally sand and rubber infill.
These characteristics deliver the all-weather attributes to ensure that play can continue year round.
