PORTLAND
, Ore.
– After days of anticipation, the new state-of-the-art FieldTurf arrived today at PGE Park. More than a dozen rolls were delivered this morning around 9 a.m. in the back of a semi truck and unloaded along the outfield wall in south end of the stadium.
Work crews spent the last two days cleaning the bare asphalt and prepping it for the new FieldTurf’s arrival. On Monday, a street sweeper put the final cleaning touches on the blacktop and removed the lingering pieces of dirt from the base cutouts.
Workers will spend today widening the warning track area in front of the Widmer garden which involves cutting and removing about two feet of asphalt near the first-base line that will ultimately be filled with warning-track material. Crews will also fill and level any remaining uneven spots in the asphalt that will serve as the foundation of the new surface.
Pieces of the new FieldTurf are expected to be unpacked and rolled out on Thursday as crews begin the process of sewing the 15-foot wide pieces together. It should take about five days for all of the turf pieces to be put together and cover the 100,000 square feet of playing surface.
Once assembled, and depending upon the weather, the large sheet of FieldTurf will then be glued down to the asphalt and prepared for its infill – a specialized mix of sand and rubber.
There are just over five weeks left until PGE Park hosts the Papé Grand Slam – the stadium’s opening event of the 2008 season featuring the Oregon State Beavers baseball team.
Stay tuned for more pictures and updates as the new FieldTurf gets put into place …
