I ventured down to Amherst to check on the status of the field turf installation. The UMass Athletic Dept has an article and image gallery here .
I was lucky enough to talk with the site manager of the installation crew. The job is being handled by Northeast Turf Co. They have a website here .
The manager was somewhat nervous about being misquoted. Therefore I wish it to be known that any inaccuracies, mis-statements or errors are totally and completely the fault of this Blog.
About the field turf:
* The UMass installation is the latest and best that FieldTurf has to offer
* The surface is very durable. Some urban high schools fields are used 24/7 with very little wear even after years of use.
* The surface can be plowed if it snows. The procedure is to mount a piece of PVC plastic pipe on the edge of the blade of the snow plow.
* There is a slight crown on the UMass field, but that is strictly cosmetic, so that traditionalists will not get anxious. The field can be installed perfectly flat and will still handle >5 inches of rain/hour.
* The endzone decals and the numerals will have black and silver shading and will be "beautiful"
* The center decal will be "UM"
* The decals are bonded over the top of the field turf on clipped section. The decals have the colors built in. They will not fade.
* The sand and rubber composite material under the blades of the turf is installed by an other crew from the same company. They need good weather to do that.
* The sand and rubber composite are already on site. The decals should arrive next week.
Right click on the image for a larger view. If your cursor shows a "+" sign, you can click again for yet a larger view.
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