This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
03/27/2018 12:00 AMAfter a recent discovery that the new $1.1 million turf field at Guilford High School (GHS) is already coming apart and cannot be used for play this spring, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) has decided to hire an independent consultant to figure out what went wrong with the field and try to repair the problem before the fall season. The field opened for play just over a year ago, following an intense and protracted debate in town about health and safety issues.
The field is composed of sections of artificial turf carpet, which comes in several pieces that are stitched together. That carpet sits on top of an impact-reducing shock pad, which sits on top of a soil drainage base. The weave of the carpet is filled with Enviro-fill, a coated sand infill material.
In January, Parks & Recreation Director Rick Maynard said some of his crew members were up near the field cleaning out drains and noticed a problem: The synthetic turf carpet was coming apart at the seams and sections of padding had come apart.
Maynard said his crew immediately notified him of the problem and he called the field installer and representatives from the shock pad and the carpet companies to come out, take a look at the problem, and come up with a solution.
“This is an exaggeration, but it’s almost like there was a mini earthquake—you are out there and you see where it pulled apart and not just at the seams,” he said. “There are other sections of the field where the whole south sideline ripped right through the shock pad—not at the seam, but right through the middle of it. When we were out there, the companies said there had to be a tremendous amount of force to cause this. The first thing they asked is, ‘Do you plow this field?’ and no, we do not plow it. I checked to make sure the school didn’t plow it and they didn’t and no helicopters landed on it or anything crazy like that.”
Since both the carpet and the shock pad are under warranty, Maynard said whatever repair costs come up will likely be covered by the company. However, Maynard had some concerns about leaving the investigation to the three companies.
“The three parties are also going to try to determine what the cause is, but we know what is going to happen,” he said, miming people pointing fingers at each other. “We know that is going to happen…Let’s get our own consultant to determine what happened and then when the other companies come back with their recommendations, we have somebody on deck to look and see if what they say is actually right.”
Maynard said the town went through the proper bidding channels in choosing a consultant and the costs will not exceed $40,000. First Selectman Matt Hoey said the consultant can determine if the town did anything wrong with the field or if it was one of the other three parties.
“If the analysis turns out to be that it was nothing that we did, that it was one of the other parties, then the expectation is that we would recover those costs,” Hoey said. “…In order to protect ourselves, I think this is an investment we have to make.”
BOS members agreed it was best to let the three companies and the town’s consultant work at the same time so that the town can try to limit how much play time is lost with that field. Maynard said the town needs to determine the cause of the problem soon because if it is a major problem, it could take some time to fix.
“We don’t know what the whole fix is,” he said. “The worst case scenario is rip it all up and putting it back down and that would be a pretty big process if that has to get done.”
In June 2016, after concerns were raised about possible negative health effects of crumb rubber, the Guilford High School Building Committee voted to move forward with an artificial turf field with Enviro-fill, to round off the new GHS building project.
The committee voted to move forward and submit a recommendation to the BOS, which was later approved, to contract with RAD Sports to construct a coated sand synthetic turf field for $1,151,100. Before voting, the committee considered suggestions and recommendations from the Standing Fields Committee and the Board of Education and discussed the financial and health implications of the various options.
RAD Sports completed the installation of perimeter piping and the fine grading of the field subgrade as well as the installation of a chain link fence.