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Updated: December 21, 2024 @ 1:53 pm
A crew with Mid-America Sports Construction, from Lee’s Summit, replaces artificial turf at the Joplin High School football practice field Thursday. Also shown is the extra padding the school district decided to install under the turf. The process will be repeated at the nearby soccer field next winter after a vote by the Joplin Board of Education on Tuesday.
Globe | John Hacker
A crew with Mid-America Sports Construction, from Lee’s Summit, replaces artificial turf at the Joplin High School football practice field Thursday. Also shown is the extra padding the school district decided to install under the turf. The process will be repeated at the nearby soccer field next winter after a vote by the Joplin Board of Education on Tuesday.
Globe | John Hacker
Installation of new artificial turf at Joplin High School will begin next year after a vote by the Joplin Board of Education on Tuesday.
Matt Harding, assistant superintendent of operations, said the soccer field’s current surface is nearing the end of its lifespan, although it remains safe to play on for one more season.
The base cost to replace the turf is $540,732, and the board opted to add in new nailing boards, a padded layer under the turf surface and other items, bringing the cost to $694,321.
“We began a turf replacement program about seven years ago by replacing the grass field at Junge Stadium with artificial turf,” Harding said. “The softball field was the first priority of the other fields, and we did that one in the winter of 2022. We did the baseball field in 2023, and we’re doing the football field at the high school now. The soccer field will be the last one for a few years.”
The soccer field and football field at the high school get a lot of use through a year from students and Joplin High School programs as well as other schools renting the facilities.
The turf at the soccer fields dates back to the construction of the high school in 2014.
Harding said turf fields like the one Joplin uses typically have 10-year lifespans before they start showing wear.
Mid-America Sports Construction from Lee’s Summit is the district’s contractor for playing surfaces.
“The soccer field is the final field in the turf updating plan,” Harding said. “We were going to wait a year, but we had some discussion and talking with the turf company. They’re expecting a 3 to 5% price increase in turf next year. Being as we’ve been working with them for the past few years, they were offering us the current pricing if we went ahead and signed a contract with them now. It won’t go in until next winter, so we’ll still play the boys’ upcoming soccer season in the fall, we’ll still play on the old turf, but after that we’ll replace that. We’re still over a year out, but we’ll get that pricing and it’s probably going to save us anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 to do it now.”
Harding said the district checks all its artificial turf fields with a process called GMAX testing to determine the ability of the surface to absorb impacts and that the soccer field tested well, meaning it’s OK for another year.
He said the district is adding more padding under the turf in this round of replacements to make the fields safer for children.
Previous construction of the softball field at the high school offered more insight into the process of replacing new turf for the soccer field, Harding added.
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