Exploring Options Carrick says, “Much of the planning for these major projects took place in 2014, which gave us time to analyze the issues we’d be facing and explore the options to work around them. Construction on the football practice fields was scheduled to begin in May or June of 2017. We knew football would be without a dedicated practice field for the duration of the project. We looked at taking the team off campus for practices, but the logistics made that unworkable. We considered splitting up the construction, doing one half first and then the other half, but we’re so limited on space, that wasn’t workable either. Te other option was to keep the team in the stadium, using it for both practices and games during the transition.”
Te field prior to resodding.
Tere’s a long history and strong ongoing relationship between Carolina Green and UNC. And Carrick and Price have worked on many field construction and renovation projects together, including the UNC soccer/ lacrosse practice fields and baseball field.
The Situation—
Major Facility Projects Located in the middle of the campus, Kenan Memorial Stadium is a true treasure. Home to the UNC football program since its construction in 1927, it has gone through numerous renovations. Troughout all those years, the field has been natural grass. Carrick reports, “In 2015, we rebuilt the Kenan Memorial Stadium football field, again working with Chad. Basically, we went all the way down, replacing an existing storm line and installing a new sand- based field that is state-of-the-art and it’s been great. So we know the quality of work that Carolina Green does.”
With UNC’s growth in student population and in sports programs, came the desire to update existing facilities. Shortly after Bubba Cunningham arrived as director of athletics in 2011, UNC began developing a master facilities plan for its 28 varsity programs. Major facility projects to be undertaken concurrently would necessitate tearing out multiple existing facilities and constructing new ones. (Details were posted in May of 2017 on
https://goheels.com/ news.) Football would gain a new indoor practice facility, with two outdoor, 120-yard practice fields (one synthetic and one natural turfgrass) built adjacent to it.
Tis master plan would require a “spirit of compromise” as the coaches and programs involved would face 12 to 15 months of disruption. Carrick says, “Yet the benefits to each program were well worth that disruption. Just considering football, the three fields at our practice facility will provide much more space to spread out the 85 players involved in that program.”
TPI Turf News January/February 2019
Te initial plan was to replace the natural grass field with a synthetic surface to handle the double wear and then, when the practice facilities were completed, to switch the field back to natural grass. Price says, “UNC asked us what it would cost to remove the existing field and install a synthetic turf field and we provided those numbers.”
Carrick says, “Chad helped us get the initial cost of going synthetic, about $1.4 million. Tere was some natural grass around the field, but off the field, and then hedges and a concrete path that ran around the stadium outside the hedges that all would need to be taken out as part of that cost.”
Price says, “Te initial installation cost was $1.4 million. Te removal of the synthetic would probably be another $500,000, if they were going to get the field back into natural grass in playing condition.”
Price pointed out that the Baltimore Ravens and Ole Miss had gone from a synthetic field back to natural grass, but each had used the synthetic field for ten years or more, spreading the costs over that period. He says, “UNC was only going to keep a synthetic field for one or two years. Tat cost—at $1.4 million up front and $500,000 on the backside—was a swing close to $2 million.”
Removing the old sod. 43
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