{"id":617,"date":"2019-03-03T17:41:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-03T17:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/03\/201933quinnipiac-will-spend-estimated-135000-to-have-rubber-turf-on-north-field\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:36:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:36:06","slug":"201933quinnipiac-will-spend-estimated-135000-to-have-rubber-turf-on-north-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2019\/03\/03\/201933quinnipiac-will-spend-estimated-135000-to-have-rubber-turf-on-north-field\/","title":{"rendered":"Quinnipiac will spend estimated $135,000 to replace faulty soccer and lacrosse field"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ross Lager<\/p>\n

Quinnipiac lacrosse and soccer teams haven’t always enjoyed a home-field advantage over the last year — in fact, they haven’t always had a home field to play on at all.<\/p>\n

When the university built the $28 million<\/span><\/a> lacrosse and soccer stadium two years ago, it chose to use a crumbly cork material to cushion the field and help the field’s artificial grass to stand up.<\/p>\n

According to the Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning, Sal Filardi, the university chose cork because it thought the material would have less impact on the wetlands bordering the field than the crumb rubber alternative. What it didn’t count on was that the cork would freeze in the wet winter weather, rise above the grass and create a slippery, unplayable surface.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the field freezes, the teams are not able to practice,” Filardi said. “Last year they missed roughly two dozen days of practice. Several games have also had to be rescheduled or moved to a different site.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n

\n
\n

Quinnipiac Soccer and Lacrosse Stadium turf<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The setbacks didn\u2019t affect the soccer teams during their season (which took place in the fall). In October, the men\u2019s soccer team hosted the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) finals on their home field. The issues with the turf are affecting the teams in the spring.<\/p>\n

Now, the university wants to replace the cork material with synthetic rubber at a cost of $135,000, Filardi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cork infill gets wet and freezes,\u201d he said. \u201cThe rubber doesn\u2019t absorb water and the black color absorbs the heat of the sun even on below freezing days.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work must be approved by Hamden’s Inland Wetlands Commission, which is concerned about the impact of the potentially toxic runoff from the rubber on the wetlands to the south of the facility.<\/p>\n

Filardi acknowledged the negative impact the field has had on Quinnipiac’s teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoaches have clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with the frozen field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sophomore soccer defenseman Simon Hillinger agreed.<\/p>\n

He said when the team came to school in January, they practiced for two weeks inside because they couldn\u2019t practice on the turf — it was too icy and slippery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think it affects us a lot,\u201d  Hillinger said. \u201cNow in spring season, you can work on the details but when you practice inside, it is smaller and all we can do is play five on five, we can\u2019t do any tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wetlands commission has voted that it will approve the change, but only under three conditions.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

First, Quinnipiac must pre-wash the rubber in a way that meets the approval of the commission. <\/p>\n

Second, the university must provide an annual inspection report about the level of synthetic rubber particles in the wetlands and to ensure proper drainage from the stadium. <\/p>\n

Finally, the university must change its snow plowing procedure so that snow is pushed to the northern side of the field, opposite the wetlands to the south.<\/p>\n

Filardi said the biggest condition is that the infill needs to washed before it gets installed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thinking is that washing removes some of the chemicals that may leach out over time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In any case, Filardi said he did not think the work could be done until spring at the earliest.<\/p>\n

“We are still identifying the process to wash the infill and determining next steps,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe we will address the field until after the current athletic seasons are over in April.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quinnipiac wants to replace the soccer and lacrosse stadium turf due to issues with the cold weather, but Hamden\u2019s Inland Wetlands Commission has set three conditions for the school to meet to apply the change to rubber turf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":618,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,6],"tags":[7,4],"class_list":["post-617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-quinnipiac","tag-hamden","tag-quinnipiac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2278,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617\/revisions\/2278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}