by John Y. Wehmueller | Staff Writer
If everything goes according to plan, Richard Montgomery High’s new artificial turf stadium field will be ready in time not only for the first week of games this fall, but preseason scrimmages, as well.
‘‘We want to be in early [this] week to start site work,” said Jeff Yoos of FieldTurf, who is overseeing the installation. ‘‘Because it’s such a tight time frame, we’re going to push it up for them. The target date is Aug. 8.”
The Rockville school will feature the first artificial field owned by Montgomery County Public Schools, after the Board of Education approved a construction contract with Atlas Track & Tennis at its June 23 meeting. Richard Montgomery’s athletic fields will all be built over the coming months on the site of its old school building, which was dismantled earlier this year.
The stadium will not have a track around the field. The track will encircle an adjacent practice field, similar to the setup at Blake, Blair and Kennedy high schools. The new stadium will be built near, and in part overlapping, the site of the old one. Land behind the large parking lot at the intersection of Fleet Street and Richard Montgomery Drive has already been leveled in anticipation.
‘‘The base work should take two to two-and-a-half weeks, and the field about three weeks,” Yoos said. ‘‘The big thing is that the excavation is already done. ... It typically takes about four weeks to get the base ready, and we like to have 30 days for the turf.
Also speeding things along is that permits are already in hand. John Scabis of the City of Rockville’s Department of Public Works said MCPS initiated the permitting process in January. The artificial surface was included as an amendment to the initial plans; that amendment was approved on June 20.
‘‘We knew [in January] that their time goal was late spring or early summer construction to try to get it ready some time in August,” Scabis said. ‘‘We did have that in mind and try to work with them to the extent we could.”
Obtaining permits has delayed similar projects elsewhere in the county. Artificial fields are considered ‘‘impervious” surfaces; unlike on grass, rainwater doesn’t all seep into the soil beneath. As such, plans for where excess runoff will go are necessary.
The Department of Parks & Planning is currently waiting for a permit to build an artificial field at Fairland Regional Park in Burtonsville, a project for which funding was approved in August 2006.
Things went more smoothly for Maryland SoccerPlex’s three turf fields in Boyds thanks to a large collection pond there. Still, Executive Director Trish Heffelfinger said it took over two months after construction began to complete the first field.
‘‘Their process is doable,” Heffelfinger said. ‘‘But the energy and work needs to be put into the base of the field. The performance of the field is based on how well the construction of the base goes.”
Similar surfaces are also in use at Bullis, Georgetown Prep and Landon, and at public high schools in most neighboring counties. Practice for fall sports begins Aug. 16 this year; the first day of games will be Friday, Sept. 5.
