Arriving at Russell Street Field on Sept. 16, we watched with interest as a young man set up electronic equipment on the brand-new surface of the soccer field. Our first thought was that he was preparing to broadcast via satellite the news about the newly renovated field to some distant land — perhaps Belgium, which got us thinking about french fries with mayonnaise.

But then we spoke to the man, whose name is Corbin Cleary and who is a field technician for Firefly Sports Testing, of Hookset, N.H. He explained that he was engaged in one of the final steps in the summer-long installation of the new FieldTurf playing surface: ensuring that the turf, a product called CORE, meets standards that pertain to the experience of the student athletes who use it.

For example, as Cleary explained, one of the factors he’d be measuring was the “Gmax” — the turf’s shock-absorbing properties, determined by dropping a test object at different points on the soccer field. (“Gmax” refers to the peak of deceleration during impact.) Other measurements included the planarity of the surface — its flatness — and the stability of the turf.

Corbin Cleary, a field technician for Firefly Sports Testing, sets up equipment on the new turf at Russell Street Field. Firefly collects turf performance data for manufacturer FieldTurf. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Complete except for final tests and a few punch list items: the new FieldTurf on the Russell Street soccer field on Sept. 16. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Looking northwest across the newly resurfaced soccer field at �ֲ���ý’ Russell Street sports complex. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The brand-new FieldTurf playing surface for soccer and other sports at Russell Street Field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

To the left of the white curb at Russell Street Field is the brand-new FieldTurf soccer pitch, and at right is the Mondo track surface installed in 2022. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Site work is underway for a new javelin runway at this site east of the softball field. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A rigger, at left, and other workers observe on Sept. 5 as a Cote Corp. crane places one of four new field lights at Russell Street Field. The lighting work was part of a summer renovation of the field. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

The business end of a new Musco field light array at Russell Street Field. Four such arrays were installed in early September. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ���ý College)

Testing the new Musco field lights at Russell Street Field on Sept. 18. (Paul Farnsworth/�ֲ���ý College)

And the new turf passed all the tests, meaning that the soccer field is ready for games to begin. The first post-renovation contest is set for Sept. 23, a women’s soccer match against Maine Maritime Academy. The Back to �ֲ���ý festivity will feature two games — not to mention the rededication of the Russell Street athletic complex — on Sept. 28.

However, and as usual, there were a few punch-list items to be addressed in the coming days. One final chore is depending on the weather. Seeding new grass in freshly landscaped areas will have to wait for a rainy spell that, at this writing, is nowhere in sight. And other work at the field unrelated to the soccer pitch will continue a little longer, as we’ll explain shortly.

Overall, after a delayed start caused by an overburdened state environmental permitting process, the soccer field makeover “has been great,” says Paul Farnsworth, �ֲ���ý project manager for the field work. “We haven’t had any hiccups. Everyone showed up and did what they said they’d do.”

Meanwhile, beyond the new soccer turf and the track that encircles it (itself resurfaced two years ago), subsidiary projects are in their final days. Early in the summer, for the FieldTurf work, a temporary driveway for heavy machinery was opened from Lafayette Street, and that area is being restored to its former appearance.

More impressively, a large and neatly contoured trench has been dug between the softball field and the Cutten Maintenance Center, and that will become a “rain garden” — a plant-filled drainage structure designed to keep stormwater running off the softball field from overwhelming nearby Jepson Brook.

In the grassy areas surrounding the softball field, more athletic facilities are being completed. To the south, near St. Mary’s Health System property, concrete has been placed to serve as the new and improved launch pad for hammer and discus throwing. Nearby, new batting cages are being built.  Around the corner of the ballfield, parallel to Lafayette Street, what on Sept. 16 appeared to be a gravel road will soon become the college’s new runway for steel-tipped javelin throwing.

And the softball field itself will be refreshed with a smoothed playing surface — living grass and dirt this time — as well as newly painted dugouts and new safety fencing protecting the dugouts.

Dreams of field: The end of summer usually brings the end of outdoor construction at �ֲ���ý, but 2024 is an exception. As the Russell Street Field work is wrapping up, general contractor Shaw Brothers and �ֲ���ý project manager Paul Farnsworth will head a half-mile west to launch a similar undertaking — replacing the entire soil-and-grass infield at the college’s baseball facility.

Field turf manufacturer FieldTurf, too, is again involved, this time supplying a product from its DoublePlay line, designed specifically for baseball. That’s because the dirt of Leahey Field is rich in marine clay, and thus in the attendant twin delights of poor drainage and soil consistency that’s ceramic-hard when dry and mucky when saturated. 

“It’s really about the student experience,” says Chris Streifel, �ֲ���ý’ director of capital planning and construction. Rainy weather leaves the “clay a soggy, sloppy, unplayable mess” that in extreme cases has caused games to be “canceled or relocated to fields at other institutions.”

The Leahey Field makeover is expected to be completed by the end of November, leaving the field ready for play in the spring.

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update loves to hear from you. Please send questions, comments, and reminiscences about construction at �ֲ���ý College to dhubley@bates.edu, with “Campus Construction” or “Can’t you just boil the potatoes in mayonnaise?” in the subject line.

Since Aug. 19, �ֲ���ý students have been sleeping, socializing, and preparing for the new year in the college’s newest campus residence, now open for business following a renovation that began last December.

With fresh paint, stylish furniture, and a striking new lounge, 96 Campus Avenue has welcomed a handful of early arrivals, including student Residence Life staff, leaders of forthcoming AESOP trips for first-year students, and athletes starting their practices.

With the influx of the full student body this weekend, 57 of the building’s 65 student beds will be filled. (A residence director also moved in last week.)

Following a period of years during which 96 Campus Avenue housed a day care and offices, the renovation has returned the three-story brick building to its residential roots. It was constructed in 1977 to house nuns of the Society of the Sisters of Charity, who worked at the facility nearby that is now known as St. Mary’s Health System.

�ֲ���ý bought the building in 2021 and decided just 11 months ago to convert it into a dorm.

�ֲ���ý’ newest student residence, seen from Campus Ave. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Having moved out of their office area at 96 Campus Avenue as the building’s makeover neared its end, Consigli Construction staff hold a meeting in the building’s new main lobby — formerly a truck bay. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

96 Campus Avenue awaits its inhabitants on Aug. 21, 2024. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

A few students had already moved into 96 Campus Avenue when we visited on Aug. 21. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Student rooms at 96 Campus Avenue are ready for their occupants. This first-floor room faces east. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The bed, chests of drawers, a desk, and a chair in a single room at 96 Campus Avenue. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Shown on the deck at 96 Campus Avenue are new picnic tables and Adirondack chairs that have supplemented the tables, at rear, that came with the building. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“I feel good about the project — I mean, it was a great transformation,” Brian Lanoie, the Facility Services project manager in charge of the makeover, told us during an Aug. 21 tour. “It was extremely helpful that it was designed as a dormitory. 

“And we had a great team,” in project designers Lavallee | Brensinger Architects and construction management firm Consigli Construction. “We had the typical hiccups that you would expect, but we overcame those, and obviously we’re open on time.

“So overall, for the incredibly short timeframe we had, I’m very happy with the project.”

The city of Lewiston certified the building as fit for occupancy on Aug. 9, and on that same day Consigli returned control of the building to �ֲ���ý as the two parties agreed that the project was, in the formal term, substantially complete. Still, minor chores remained, Lanoie explained during our tour.

Most could be categorized as punch-list items — minor problems revealed during final inspections. Those included a “little bit of everything,” Lanoie said. For instance, back-ordered items awaiting installation: a unit heater, a few light fixtures, some door hardware.

Plus “a lot of touch-up painting. There’s woodwork that needs to be fixed or replaced in some areas. There’s a broken pane of glass that needs to be repaired. The bike rack isn’t installed yet.”

He continued, “When I looked this morning, there were 75 items still being tracked, and we’re probably going to find some more” encountered by occupants as they settle in.

Another late-in-the-game routine, though, is all but done. So-called commissioning, the process of testing the building’s utilities equipment, can be completed as soon as that back-ordered heater is installed. In fact, the firm providing the new building-management controls, Maine Controls, was scheduled to train Facility Services staff on Aug. 22.

Moving away from punch-lists and commissioning, the 96 Campus Avenue grounds still need touching up. St. Laurent & Son, the local firm responsible for site work on the project, will patch the lawn where construction equipment gouged it around the building. Meanwhile, in a separate project, Gottlieb Landscape Design of Mount Vernon will spiff up the tree-shaded area near the dorm’s outdoor deck.

The conclusion of the 96 Campus Avenue project will also conclude, for now, the presence on campus of Consigli, whose representatives have been at �ֲ���ý overseeing major construction at least as far back as 2006 — and more or less continuously since 2018 and the start of the Bonney Science Center.

Finally, Lanoie pointed out that he and Chris Streifel, �ֲ���ý’ director of capital planning and construction (and for years our guide through a number of big projects) have been working on a “Day 2 list” — possible upgrades to 96 Campus Avenue that have emerged in the course of the renovation just ending.

For example, an aging section of roof near the building’s new entrance should be replaced, as should the door to the building’s former main entrance. Putting a single metal door there in place of the current pair of glass doors would send a clear message that the main entrance is elsewhere (in fact, relocated to a former service area in an annex facing the main campus).

“We’ll see if we can afford to do those based on what our contingency (fund) looks like at the end of the job,” Lanoie said. “And then we’ll prioritize that list and we’ll try to focus on them, maybe during a holiday break, and see what we can get done.” (Campus Construction Update’s equivalent list at home is called the “2020 2023 2030 List.”)

They left us with crumbs: By the time you read this (or at least skim it in search of wacky humor), a substantial portion of the Russell Street soccer field will be green. In the first phase of installing a new FieldTurf playing surface, workers for the turf manufacturer began rolling out long strips of the plastic grass-like product early in the week.

Laying down the new FieldTurf surface at Russell Street Field on Aug. 27, 2024. Most of the turf sections weigh 1,269 pounds and are 15 feet wide and 183 feet long. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

Workers are installing a new FieldTurf surface at Russell Street Field on Aug. 27, 2024. Note the gravel subgrade in the foreground and the freshly laid turf in back. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

The layers of FieldTurf are placed grassy side to grassy side to be stitched together. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

Artificial grass is woven into a heavy fabric matrix to form the basis of the new FieldTurf playing surface at Russell Street Field. Sand and crumb-rubber infill will support the grass and impart desirable playing qualities to the field. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

Dan Gleason, FieldTurf site supervisor, uses a handheld sewing machine to stitch together sections of the new Russell Street Field playing surface. One worker precedes Gleason, blowing compressed air to clear debris. Others simply support the heavy turf using grippers like the one at left. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

A close look at the crumb-rubber and sand infill that will be spread over the new FieldTurf playing surface. (Jay Burns/�ֲ���ý College)

As workers used specialized machinery to unspool the turf onto the subgrade, that process was heavy and mechanical. But as other workers adjusted the seams and sewed the strips together, it was also precise and hands-on.

Each strip of turf is 15 feet wide, 183 feet long, and, not surprisingly, heavy — nearly 1,300 pounds. What was surprising is how fast a team of workers, half-a-dozen or so, could fasten the seam between two strips. For that process, the strips were arranged face to face — grassy side to grassy side.

Several members of the team used tong-like grippers to raise the strips, align them, clamp them together for stitching, and set them down again. In the middle of the group, one worker blew debris out of the seam with a jet of compressed air and another, FieldTurf site supervisor Dan Gleason, used a handheld electric sewing machine to stitch the seam.

As he moved along, the strip wranglers on the loose side got out of his way and crossed behind him to handle the stitched area.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Farnsworth noted, about three-quarters of the turf was in place. But it will take much longer, probably a couple of weeks, for the next phase of the job: working infill into the turf. That infill, reclaimed from prior turf surfaces elsewhere, comprises a mix of sand and rubber crumbs. After they use up the reclaimed material, “they will finish off the top of the field with new rubber pellets.”

The infill provides shock absorption, structural stability, and, by holding the grass blades upright, an aesthetic benefit.

And the handwork will return later with the quasi-surgical activity of excising bits of turf so that sport-specific lines (such as the penalty area in soccer or goalie crease in lacrosse) and �ֲ���ý-branding visuals can be stitched into the openings.

The infill has provided an additional aesthetic treat, too, but it’s temporary. Rubber crumbs started arriving last week, creating a spectacle at the Russell Street parking lot: a reef of fabric bags seeming to stretch from horizon to horizon, all filled with rubber crumbs (putting us in mind of the Three Stooges’ ditty, “She was bred in old Kentucky, but she’s just a crumb up here”). 

The crumbs are created by freezing and shattering worn-out (or you might say, retired) tires.

The Russell Street Field revamp also includes new field lights, and the bases for those, made of precast concrete, are in place. A crane will visit the field Sept. 5–6 to erect the poles and place the lamp arrays, which should be fun to watch.

Paul Farnsworth, �ֲ���ý project manager for the field makeover, explains that the lights are activated for games by a central computer system. That system is a proprietary service provided by the lighting manufacturer, MUSCO, of Oskaloosa, Iowa. (�ֲ���ý is a longtime MUSCO customer.)

Clients log in and indicate when the lights should shine, and the computer makes it happen wirelessly. The only wired connection is for the raw electricity feeding the lamps. (This makes more sense than what we had pictured: someone running around at game time to switch on each of the four field lights by pulling a very, very long chain.)

Finally, changes are coming to the Russell Street facilities for softball and for throwing events. New batting cages, one for visiting teams and one for the Bobcats, are being built.

Also under construction are a throwing cage for discus and hammer, and a javelin runway. The latter, Farnsworth explains, is needed because the old one is too close to the soccer field — “we can’t throw javelins into our new turf.” (The old runway will remain, but for use only with rubber-tipped javelins.)

These features are going into a grassy patch between the softball outfield and St. Mary’s Health System property. �ֲ���ý’ Ultimate teams and other sports have used that area in the past, and they’ll have more options with the new Field Turf. 

Can we talk? Send your thoughts about past, present, future, and parallel-universe �ֲ���ý construction projects to Doug Hubley. Please put “Construction Update” or “Was Shemp ever funny at all?” in the subject line.

Doug Hubley is a writer and musician living in Portland, Maine.