Updated Design and Timeline Announced for New Turf Fields at Marshall Simonds Middle School
After encountering expanded wetlands on the site, the project has an updated design and a new completion date.
The project to install two new turf fields behind the existing turf field at Marshall Simonds Middle School, originally scheduled to be completed by this fall, is getting back on track.
In the preliminary stages, the wetland delineation portion of the project revealed the protect areas around the site had expanded in recent years, giving the project team less land to work with.
In response, the design team went back to the drawing board, reconfiguring the design to contain a full-size field and a smaller U10 field rather than two full-size fields as originally planned. The new configuration will have the fields running roughly north-to-south rather than east-to-west as originally planned, said Field Committee Chair Jeremy Brooks at the School Committee meeting on August 19. He went on to say the fields will feature adequate seating, lighting, and emergency access, as well as scoreboards for the full-size field and a lacrosse practice wall near the smaller field.
An accessible walkway will lead down from the school to the fields, with accessible terraced seating on one side. A walkway between the two fields will serve as a separation, allowing the fields to be resurfaced in their own time rather than all at once. This is important, said Brooks, because the smaller field will likely take on less wear and tear and last longer.
This project, while delayed by nearly a year, may result in some cost savings to the town, and Brooks said the team will reinvest into the project and/or return to the town any surplus remaining when the project is complete.
The new plan was unanimously approved by the members in attendance at the last Field Committee meeting and, after some adjustments at their next meeting, the plan will be brought to the full School Committee for approval. The plan will then go before the Conservation Commission for a Notice of Intent.
If all goes according to plan, the new timeline will have the project breaking ground in April or May of 2026.
