Marvin Lee artificial turf enters final stages.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
The final stages of construction on the artificial playing turf at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Centre of Excellence, Macoya began on Saturday and if all goes according to schedule, the venue should be ready for football matches in just under a month’s time.
This was the word coming from project manager Gerard Texeira as he accompanied a work staff comprising of workers from Domo, a European-based sports and leisure grass company as well as Terra Forma, the locally-based contracting company involved in the project.
The Belgium company, rated worldwide to be among the top three companies for artificial grass has been hired by FIFA to construct the pitch and have done similar jobs in Europe. The current one as a massive project as it will be the first of its kind in the Caribbean and by extension CONCACAF at a cost in excess of USD600,000.
This is the second Goal Project for Trinidad and Tobago following the construction of the Futsal Indoor playing facility at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in 2005.
“Based on the pace at which the guys are going now and according to the weather conditions, we should have this completed in three-four weeks,” Texiera said on Saturday.
“We are still in the early phases but from today we started putting down the underlay and by tomorrow midday we should start putting down the grass itself which is already here on location. Then there will be a final lay down of a mixture of synthetic soil,” Texiera explained briefly.
CONCACAF President Jack Warner was also at the site on Saturday and will monitor the happenings over the coming days.
Domo representative Arnoud Fiolet earlier mentioned that similar surfaces have been laid down in Norway, Holland and the United Kingdom.
A FIFA statement added “FIFA is very much in favour of the installation and use of artificial turf in climates and stadium microclimates where the maintenance and growth of natural grass is difficult. Many regions of the world suffer from extreme climatic conditions and as a result are often without adequate natural grass pitches. Likewise, the trend to build stadia with roofs and steep terraces for additional spectator comfort often creates an environment better suited to artificial turf.
