Skip to content

Fields of dreams in the works in Maple Ridge

Field at Golden Ears elementary almost done
13878517_web1_181009-MRN-M-Screen-Shot-2018-10-09-at-8.39.42-AM
Road improvement will speed up access to Golden Ears Provincial Park. (Contributed)

The City of Maple Ridge is plowing away at its to-do list, finishing a road and new outdoor sports field recently.

The city is just finishing the new all-weather sports field at Golden Ears elementary. The artificial surface has now been installed, the city said in its weekly update, Maple Ridge This Week.

The field will use the latest material known as thermo-plastic elastomer as the playing surface, instead of the older crumb rubber. That will allow better control on the field by players and be less abrasive and odour free.

The material used is food-grade polymer beads that will be either green or brown, instead of black, allowing a cooler playing surface.

A similar new playing surface has also just replaced the older crumb-rubber surface at Samuel Robertson Technical secondary.

Last-minute landscaping at Golden Ears elementary continues and includes bio swales, which capture rainwater and filters it before being released into the storm sewer system and, eventually, local creeks.

The city has also completed its extension of 128th Avenue, from Mill Street to Fern Crescent. That’s a distance of 274 metres and includes improvements of intersections at either end.

The city said the road is part of the official community plan and will provide better access to Golden Ears Provincial Park.

Work, however, continues on the $8.5-million rebuild of 232nd Street from Fern Crescent up to Silver Valley.

Construction is also underway for the $10-million redo of the Thomas Haney secondary sports fields, which will see two all-weather fields and two natural turf fields next to the skateboard park.

That project is part of the list of rec projects for which borrowing was approved earlier this year.