First of all, why TURF?

Synthetic turf playfields have come a long way since the days of slick, unforgiving carpet over stretched over top of barely cushioned macadam.    Those products were formulated for enclosed, domed stadiums where natural grass could not grow and were based on economy and uniformity far ahead of concerns for the safety of athletes.

Today’s synthetic turf products are soft and cushioning with a primary focus on safety and allowing consistent play from game to game, season after season, by avoiding the soils compaction and progressive grass deterioration that plagues most natural grass fields, season after season, but most particularly those subject to frequent overuse, a condition that Somerville’s Brooks Field suffers from in its shared use as ‘home turf’ for a wide variety of school and community organizations.

The current generations of synthetic turf fields, often referred to simply as ‘turf’, visually resembles natural grass in both texture and color in its effort to create a surface that plays as close to real grass in its prime condition as possible.   Synthetic turf fields consist of a top playing surface ‘carpet’ or ‘mat’ that consists of woven synthetic nylon or polypropylene filaments, shaped, cut and dyed to resemble grass fibers at the rate of up to a hundred per square inch and which are filled with mixtures of ground rubber particles and sometimes clean sand to provide both the soft cushioning feature that limits the ‘G’ forces or physical shock effect of an athlete falling to the ground as well as providing the give and grip of shoe cleats biting into the turf to accelerate into a run or stop direction before cutting along some other line of movement.    

Beneath the top carpet is a cushioned subbase of graded drainage materials starting with porous sands or gravel dust nearest the top and progressing to larger drainage stone feet below the surface and intermixed among a herringbone network of drainage pipe.   Just as the top surface is permeable allowing everything from a drizzle to a deluge to pass through its weave, so too is the drainage base capable to allowing any quantity of deluge to be collected and drained away from the subsurface piping fast enough so a synthetic field is ready to play during and immediately following deluge conditions with only minimal surface dressing to dry out the fiber filaments.

Synthetic turf is both expensive and cost effective.  The subbase condition is a substantial investment that  remains under the field and performs for an estimated 50 to 75 years without the need for replacement of drainage pipe or installation of new, clean stone.    The top carpet has a warranted life of 8 to 12 years depending up the product, manufacturer, exposure to sunlight and frequency of top-dressing between uses to help fluff up the fibers and redistribute the rubber infill particles.  The top play surface can be removed and replaced without damage to the underlying subbase and typically for only a fraction of the original field cost.   By eliminating grass lawn needs for watering, fertilizing, pest management, over seeding, aeration and cutting activities,  synthetic turf proves economical to the annual budget.

Synthetic turf fields are performance enhancing.   Turf has proven to be the surface of choice for many local school districts where land shortage prevents having multiple grass fields which can be restored and reseeded each year or re-sodded and rested every few years.   While natural grass fields are the standard by which every synthetic field is measured by, few grass fields can offer the consistency of play and safe fall zone forces that a good synthetic field can offer every day that it is in use.   As such, it is hardly surprising that infill turf fields have become the frequent choice of most NCAA college fields as well as indoor and outdoor professional sports stadiums.

Synthetic turf on Brooks Field will allow for a tremendous increase in its use and functionality.    Turf will safely accommodate not just football, but allow for an expanded menu of sports from soccer, lacrosse and field hockey to everyday high school physical education classes.  Most importantly, because a synthetic turf field integrates a performance enhancing surface with a fast draining substrate to channel water away, a turf field allows activities in all kinds of weather, year-round, without being hindered by mud, dust, ponding water, or slow draining clay.

With plans to renovate Brooks Field into a synthetic turf play surface, those improvements will serve an entire community beyond the narrow borders of Somerville since Brooks serves not only students from Somerville High School but also athletes from Immaculata High School, Somerville’s Pop Warner League, community use groups from Somerville and Branchburg as well as  students from 41 other school districts who visit Somerville annually to compete in band festivals, drill team, programs and athletic competitions. 

Investing in synthetic turf is a smart move for our communities.    It allows us to maximize the usability of Brooks Field,  providing competitive benefits for our students, while minimizing annual field maintenance costs to our school district.   

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TEAM GREEN’s Plan for Synthetic Turf at Brooks Field, Then the Field Hockey Turf

TEAM GREEN’s ambitious goal has been to help fund field improvements, ultimately at two (2) playing fields located on the Somerville High School property.   The first phase is to create a community-wide asset by converting Somerville’s premier competitive venue from grass to a state of the art, synthetic field, suited specifically for physical contact sports with a high degree of cushioning.   

The second phase of their vision is to raise enough funds to hopefully use the excess crown soils removed from Brooks field to help level the terribly sloped playfield at Davenport and Ivanhoe Streets which has been rejected for any competitive use due to its sloped profile.    SHS desperately needs to have that field restored as a high quality practice field as well as a field suitable for competitive play for rolling ball sports such as field hockey, lacrosse and soccer.   TEAM GREEN’s vision is to pursue sufficient funds to accomplish BOTH fields in a phased project using different turf surface carpets best suited for the different sports play intended for each field.

TEAM GREEN’s mission is to arrange for funding of the field improvements entirely through donations, gifts, pledges and grants.   The Somerville Public School District cannot afford to undertake these field improvements within its annual budget nor within its limited bonding capacity which has been used to sustain physical expansion and renovations to all three of its districts schools.  

TEAM GREEN is committed to raising funds or accessing grants that will enable the field projects to advance without impacting local taxpayers through any form of bonding or increased tax assessment.   The greening of Brooks Field with synthetic turf is to be implemented as an economical choice with far-reaching benefits.

OVERVIEW of Project Basics:

PHASE 1:  Replace warn, compacted grass on Brooks Field with new drainage subbase and all-weather synthetic turf

PHASE 2:  Restore field hockey field with retaining wall, leveled subbase and new, synthetic top play surface

Consider additional improvements: (funds permitting)  at the Brooks Complex including ADA access into home grandstands, installation of a safer, enclosed, enlarged press box at the home grandstands with roof access for filming,  enhancements to the Snack Shack to allow for indoor grilling with new exhaust hood, ansul fire suppression system, fire detection system, provisions for public toilet facilities.

UPDATED CONSTRUCTION COSTS for Phase 1+2: (est. 2008) @ $1.6 million to $1.8 million

FINANCING;   funded by gifts, pledges, contributions and grants;  No Public Bonding / No Tax Increase

Existing Turf

Existing Turf