University of Virginia's Carr's Hill Field to Get Latest AstroTurf®

May 14, 2005
By Erin Mayes / Daily Progress staff writer

The University of Virginia's Carr's Hill Field will soon be more resilient to the abuse regularly visited upon it by sneakers, cleats and foul weather.

Although in recent weeks bulldozers have turned the plot of land into a barren stretch of orange dirt, an evergreen, weatherproof field will soon fill the space.

The once-grassy intramural athletic field near the intersection of Ivy Road and Emmet Street is being replaced with an artificial turf surface that will eliminate many of the problems the old field presented.

"This is the new generation of Astroturf®," university landscape architect Mary Hughes said. "It's a surface that is not a living entity, so you can play on it incessantly and grass doesn't get run down."

Hughes said the heavily used field was frequently pockmarked with bare brown patches, and because of the many intramural sports and the scarcity of athletic fields around Grounds, finding a time to properly reseed was nearly impossible.

The field was also prone to flooding after heavy rains.

"That particular location has never drained properly," UVa intramural athletics director Mark Fletcher said. “It was either a swamp or concrete.”

While previous turfs were hard surfaces often laid atop asphalt, the latest incarnation is placed on a base of stone and recycled rubber, allowing for more give and better drainage in the surface, Fletcher said.

The surface is widely used in Europe , and the National Football League's Carolina Panthers use it as well, Fletcher said.