|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The city of Mountain View and the Mountain View Whisman School District plan to invest a total of $2.2 million into the Crittenden Middle School track and field area.
The school board voted June 11 4-1 to approve the plans, which include spot repairs to the track surface, regrading the foundational base, removing and replacing the existing synthetic turf, restriping, and adding any ADA requirements that may have emerged since the turf was installed in 2017.
The project is still in the design phase, and bids for construction are expected to open in December. Construction is estimated to begin in spring 2027, according to the slides presented to the board. District Chief Business Officer Rebecca Westover clarified that timeline may change as the designs will have to be submitted to the California Division of the State Architect. That process is notoriously slow, she said.
“We do not yet have a firm timeline, but will schedule around the Crittenden events as much as possible,” Westover told the Voice.
Staff first identified major issues with the subgrade in May 2023, when wave-like undulations appeared beneath the artificial surface. Most turf fields last from eight to 12 years, Westover told trustees. After an unsuccessful internal investigation into the reason for the uneven turf, the district hired a forensic geotechnical engineer.
The engineer reported that years of drought followed by a year of heavy rain caused the undulations. The climatic extremes made the underlying soil rapidly expand and contract, Westover said, resulting in uneven surfaces.
“When they were preparing to do the AstroTurf, they found the layers down below were cracked,” Westover told trustees. “After we put the field down, we had heavy rain.”
The city of Mountain View will pay approximately $1.2 million for the turf replacement, while the school district will pay around $1 million for regrading and any ADA work. The district’s portion will be paid from fund 40, which is designated for capital projects.
Trustee Devon Conley was the only dissenting voice among the board because she was “concerned about continuing to use this type of material.” She also questioned why the city would agree to install it, considering previous discussions the council has had related to artificial turf.
Westover responded that the planning period for natural turf would be much longer, as they would have to also add an irrigation system and install a different drainage system. She added that the city plans to use natural corn infill – the dirt-like material that lays between blades of artificial turf – as opposed to an artificial one.
This is fantastic news, and as any user of the field will tell you, the undulations have gotten really bad and definitely affect play.
Important to realize just how much use this field gets, which is why natural grass really won’t work. People are on it almost every day of the week (often with multiple teams at a time) during the various soccer seasons, which is pretty much year round, and Mountain View just doesn’t have enough field space elsewhere to lighten the load. Just take the time to get the best injury-resistant turf possible, and ask for donations towards that quality level if necessary.
And consider lining it just for soccer fields (large and small)… not sure I’ve seen a football game (the American kind) played there since it was built.
That Devon Conley opposes this, makes me believe this is the right move. Crittenden needs the love, FWIW. Now if someone would reconcile why Callahan field doesn’t get the same love as the boy’s baseball field….?
Understand why Conley questioned the continued use of this type of material. Every time my kid practices or plays a game there they come home with little rubber pellets and strands of plastic turf embedded into their socks and clothing, which is extremely hard to remove and leaves plastic everywhere. It’s gross and drives me nuts.