Maple Ridge athletes will be on a state-of-the-art, space-age material when they run, jump and score goals on the new artificial fields at Golden Ears elementary and Samuel Robertson Technical School.
The City of Maple Ridge parks and recreation department will be using a material known as thermo-plastic elastomer as the playing surface, instead of the older crumb rubber, for both locations.
“The technology around synthetic fields has really evolved since our first synthetic field in Maple Ridge (in 2005),” said parks manager Valoree Richmond with the recreation department.
The fields 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.
Staff looked at other fields using the same material that were recently installed in Burnaby and Vancouver, before recommending the new material.
“This is a fully recyclable material,” said Richmond.
The new field at Karina LeBlanc Field, which just opened, will use the older surface, which was approved before the new material was able to be evaluated in other locations.
Total cost to install both surfaces rings in at about $1.27 million, according to a staff report. Council gave it’s OK at its Tuesday meeting. The cost for the Arthur Peake Centre surface is for the playing surface only. Construction costs for redeveloping the entire area will be in addition to that amount.
The new fields should be open by fall.