Ohio school wants collapsing field fixed in time for football
10 Aug, 2010 Athletic Turf NewsJOHNSTOWN, OH – The presence of an aquifer is suspected in the failure of a 2-year-old FieldTurf high school football field here. The materials beneath the synthetic surface became unstable this summer, resulting in an expected $300,000 makeover.
“The problem is when it rained, the surface would become very soft and there were spots when you stepped on it it felt like Jell-O,” high school principal Kim Jakeway told the Newark Advocate in late July.
GeoSurfaces, which installed the field, contends that it is not at fault for the field's failure, even though it has "spent over $150,000 in investigative and remediation efforts to determine the cause of he problem."
In its Aug. 2 news release, the Baton Rouge, LA-based company said: "The School had determined prior to construction that it would not undertake the geotechnical evaluation and expense, which would have been requied to make this determination (underground water.)"
The company added that "having no factural responsibility or legal liability for these conditions and redsulant problems, but solely in a good faith effort to help resolve an unfortunate situation fo the School, GeoSurfaces considered paying a portion of the necssary remediation cost."
It continued that it is committed to helping the School with the reinstallation of the field "once the school has addressed the geotechnical engineering issues that have been the sole cause of those problems.
Jakeway said the school loves the field, which was paid for by the town’s Chambers Foundation, and he's hopeful that repairs will be made yet this summer so the school can use it for its fall sports.
To read more, click here.
For Geo-Surfaces complete response to allegations that its installation or the materials that it used were faulty, click here.
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