AstroTurf going down at UMaine> Choice pleases Cosgrove

Opening day on Morse Field at Alfond Stadium is still nearly 10 weeks away, but the new grandstand is rapidly becoming the most imposing structure on the north side of the University of Maine’s Orono campus.

The grandstand, which will be topped by nine luxury boxes and a press box, is expected to extend some 90 feet into the air.

“People always look at the field house and say it’s a huge building,” said UMaine assistant athletic director Jim Dyer said. “They say that the working press box is probably going to be higher than the field house roof.”

UMaine football coach Jack Cosgrove likes the way the whole facility is shaping up, and said it continues to attract attention.

“I can see it out my [ofice] window, which is neat,” Cosgrove said of the grandstand. “People keep saying how big it is. I tell them, `What did you expect? We’re putting in a football stadium.’ ”

Down below, in the shadow of the 6,000-seat grandstand, work is progressing on the field itself.

A crew from Texas-based artificial surfacing giant Southwest Recreational Industries has arrived in Orono and has begun installing the rubberized elastic layer (e-layer) that will provide cushioning under the AstroTurf playing surface.

UMaine athletic director Sue Tyler said a committee of some 20 people, including Cosgrove and field hockey coach Terry Kix, helped select AstroTurf, the original synthetic turf.

“We got the best quality for the best price,” Tyler said. “We’re really pleased with what’s going to be down there.”

David Trefethen, UMaine’s associate director of engineering services, said Southwest bid $478,253 to install the playing surface.

“We went with the low bid,” Trefethen said. “We had two products which we felt were essentially equal in quality. We researched both of them carefully.”

Southwest Recreational Industries edged out D.D. Martin, whose bid of $479,700 was $1,447 higher.

Cosgrove is happy with the choice of the AstroTurf surface.

“I was happy that we went with the AstroTurf company because they’re the giant in the field, so to speak,” said Cosgrove, who praised Phillip and Susan (Keene) Morse for making the project possible. “[AstroTurf is] the only turf being used [for football] at the Division I level across the country.”

AstroTurf has been installed at more than 700 facilities since 1965.

Crews from Sargent and Sargent of Hampden recently completed grading the two-foot gravel layer upon which the Astroturf will rest.

“It has to be very accurately done, or the lines in the AstroTurf look wavy,” Trefethen said.

On Tuesday, the Southwest crew began laying the 1 1/2-inch e-layer, which is made up of rubber granules and rubber strands and provides shock absorbency. It is applied with a machine similar to an asphalt paver.

Once the e-layer is in place, within a week or so, workers will begin gluing down the actual playing surface. The covering is made up of nylon fibers knitted into a backing of polyester cord.

The AstroTurf “carpet,” which has a half-inch pile height, comes in 15-foot-wide sections. Dyer said most of the yard lines and field markings are knitted into the fabric, thus do not need to be painted.

Dyer said the Morse Field at Alfond Stadium project appears to be taking shape nicely. The lights are expected to be going up soon, while work is in progress to install a new long jump pit and a javelin runway at the Clarence Beckett Track complex, one of the few elements of the original facility that remains intact.

The track is expected to be ready in time for the National Masters Track and Field Championship, scheduled July 30-Aug. 2 in Orono.