| New multipurpose athletic field scheduled for
completion by late April
BY MIKE UNGER Better late than never. That’s the feeling of university officials after unforseen delays have pushed back the scheduled opening of the new multipurpose athletic field until late April. “It’s about 80 percent of the way there,” said Jorge Abud, assistant vice president of facilities and administrative services. Former AU trustee William I Jacobs donated $1 million for the project, which includes a turf field, softball field, and volleyball courts. A swimmer while at AU, Jacobs also participated in many intramural sports, often with his Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity brothers as teammates. “I really wanted this to be done for the entire [AU] community,” Jacobs said. “The swimming and the [intramural] sports were just keys to my college experience. I think that athletics, if it’s done correctly, is an important part of the educational process.” When complete, the new field will serve as an arena on which all AU students can compete. “It will provide a practice and competition area for the women’s field hockey team, women’s lacrosse, and intramural recreation and fitness use for all of the students on campus,” Athletic Director Joni Comstock said. Construction began in late summer. “We wanted to begin in June, but it is a project that requires a building permit from the city, and we didn’t receive it until August,” Abud said. “[Work] started at the beginning of September, and even at that point we had expected to complete it by the end of December.” But Mother Nature had other ideas. Rain delayed work, and the contractor cannot install the Astroturf 12 playing surface in temperatures below 50 degrees.
“The material, the carpet itself, because it needs to sit out while they’re working, can contract while they’re doing the work,” Abud said. “It would then expand in the warmer weather and start to bubble and ripple, so we decided to wait.”
After installation the Astroturf does not contract, even in cold weather.
Other obstacles have popped up over the past few months. “The contractor accidentally hit a water line that was in the hillside behind the Child Develop-ment Center,” Abud said. “Some of our older utilities aren’t well marked. That resulted in flooding the entire area and the need to reroute the line and fix the
damage that was done.” Negotiations concerning trees with a resident whose property borders the field also dragged on longer than expected. “We began discussions [with
the neighbor] in April, but it
didn’t get resolved until October,” Abud said. Barring unseasonably cold temperatures, Abud believes work on the field can resume in late March. Once the weather breaks, the project can be completed in three or four weeks, he said. The new field will become the centerpiece of AU’s intramural program. In addition to the primary field, there will be a softball diamond with the dirt infield set back from the turf field, and two sand volleyball courts. |
