The idea of replacing the upper intramural fields with synthetic turf that could be playable in any weather, seemed like a dream scenario for ASI and students who play intramurals at Cal Poly.
Due to complications that arose during Ohno Construction Company’s building of the fields have been delayed for months and are still in need of some “fixing-up”
The late shipment of turf fibers from Belgium for the third field caused the original delay. The delays in these materials lead to construction waning into winter, which lead to even more problems as the construction crews battled winter weather.
After construction was nearly finished Cal Poly hired Labosport, an independent inspection company, to come out and look at the fields. After their inspection in late November Labosport declared that the fields were not up to FIFA level playing standards.
“The international standard for the fields to attain a FIFA Certification is that they can have no greater than a 10mm difference in 3 meters,” said Joel Neel Associate director for facilities planning and capital projects. “Our fields have seen some areas with about 10mm over that standard. This does not mean the field is not playable just that it does not meet the FIFA 2-star standard.”
Ohno Construction, the company that was hired to build the intramural fields is hoping to make the final adjustments that our needed for the fields early this month.
“Ohno Construction is being very responsive and is working diligently to correct the unevenness,” Neel said.
“Ohno Construction was chosen based on their submittal and the price. Ohno Construction provided a very high quality turf product, more upgrades such as a shade cover and soccer and lacrosse goals, had good references and the lowest price from the four submittals we received.”
The delay in use of the fields did have some adverse affects on intramurals this year as less spots for teams were offered and it also resulted in an increase in traffic on the lower intramural fields.
“We just had to offer a little bit less than in previous years just because we didn’t have the same amount of space available,” Robyn Claborn Program Coordinator for Recreational Sports.
Fall quarter there was no flag football offered in a preemptive measure to protect the fields that are also used by club teams such as soccer and rugby. Over winter break sod was placed in the areas that were most worn.
As the field space decreased it forced ASI to prioritize which leagues to offer because the demand for intramurals did not drop off as the amount of field space did.
“We usually dedicate a larger amount to division 2 leagues because their moderately competitive and we can offer those leagues to the most amount of participants,” said Claborn.
The fields are supposed to be open this July and ready for intramurals in the coming fall.
“(The lower fields) will have time to recover…slow pitch softball (is) all that we are planning on holding down there once those upper fields open which is what we have done in the past,” Claborn said. “Fortunately we don’t use a ton of the actual grass space out there during our normal usage but this year it’s just been a lot more than usual.”
Assuming that the rest of work that needs to be done on the fields goes according to plan the amount of leagues and teams available are expected to return to their normal levels for the next school year.
“We’re going to be programming the same amount (of intramural teams) that we have in years prior to this one,” Claborn said.
“07-08, that’s what were going to try to go back to.”
