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07/08/2015 08:30 AMThough last year’s Old Saybrook High School (OSHS) football team’s seniors had hoped to play at least a few home games on the new synthetic turf field, it was not to be. This year’s seniors will have better luck.
Installation of the new turf field, stalled since September 2014 when the field’s first base layer failed a drainage test, began again in late June after a new base layer material mock-up passed the test. Unless bad weather intervenes, the new turf field will be ready for fall 2015 home football games.
“We are moving full steam ahead now,” said school district Director of Operations Julie Pendleton.
Getting the field’s base layer right was important. The base layer must be able to drain away even heavy rain fast enough to keep the field surface playable both during and after storms.
Although BSC Group, the field design engineers, and Guerrera Construction, the field construction contractor, finally agreed on a specific base material, the chosen quarry supplier could not produce it all at once, so the new base material is being delivered to the OSHS field site in batches as the quarry produces it.
“All the base material is expected to be delivered to the site and put in place by July 10. Installation of the turf is scheduled to begin the week of July 20,” said Pendleton.
The rolls of turf field carpet are stacked at the edge of the field, ready to be rolled out and connected as soon as the base layer installation is complete and passes the stipulated performance tests.
Some Background
Town voters in October 2013 approved $1.75 million in bonding to replace the six tennis courts, replace the running track, and to install an artificial turf field in place of the school’s premier natural turf field. Once the funding was approved, the Board of Education and its Turf, Tennis Court, and Track (Triple T) Building Committee released the project for bidding.
Five bids were received and reviewed by the Triple T Building Committee and its field design engineer, BSC Group. The apparent low bidder for the project at a cost of $1,684,000 was Guerrera Construction of Oxford. After scope review meetings with the firm, the committee and BSC Group were satisfied and voted to recommend the Board of Education award the project construction contract to Guerrera Construction.
Work on the athletic facility improvement projects began in June 2014. The tennis courts were completed by the end of the summer, but the field installation work that had been scheduled for completion in September 2014 missed that date.
After the field’s first base layer failed a key drainage test, Guerrera had to remove it, and by the time this work was done in October, it was too late to install a new field drainage layer.
The new track could not be installed either because that work was on hold, too, until all of the heavy trucks had finished making base layer deliveries to the turf field it will surround.
Both the turf field and track installation work should be completed by late August just before school opens, if the current project schedule holds.