By Daniel Katzive
With the snow and ice having been dispatched by last week’s brief warm spell, the carpet of artificial turf has been rolled up at Riverside Park’s 107th Street athletic fields. Work is now underway to replace the 3.76-acre field’s turf with a new synthetic covering and upgrade drainage below.
Details of the $1.343 million project, funded by an allocation from the mayor’s budget, were laid out last fall by the Department of Parks and Recreation to Community Board 7’s Parks & Environment Committee. Margaret Bracken, chief of design and construction for Riverside Park, told the committee the artificial turf was last replaced 20 years ago – an unusually long lifespan for such a heavily used field and well beyond the 9-year manufacturer warranty. The turf has been patched and repaired in recent years but had reached a stage where full replacement was necessary, Bracken said.
Drainage and piping below the turf will be inspected and cleaned as part of the work, and the rubber fill from recycled tires that has held the turf in place will be replaced with clean sand fill, according to Bracken.
A spokesperson for the city parks department told WSR that the work is expected to be completed by the end of March, apparently in time for spring sports seasons. The field will be marked for soccer and baseball.
The 107th Street field is one of two large turf athletic areas in this section of the park. The other, a bit to the south around 103rd Street, is also due for renovation. City Councilmember Shaun Abreu announced last June that he had secured $1.4 million for that field, but a parks department spokesperson told WSR a start date has not yet been set for that work.
The work comes as legislation has been introduced to ban new artificial turf fields in city parks. Councilmember Christopher Marte, representing lower Manhattan, last week submitted a bill that would bar the Parks Department from installing new artificial turf fields, though existing fields such as those in Riverside Park could still be maintained and resurfaced. Marte said artificial grass surfaces reflect heat and can shed microplastics into waterways and the air.
It is unclear how much support Marte’s bill will attract. Advocates for artificial turf typically point to lower maintenance costs (though Marte said in an interview with Fox5 News that natural grass fields cost less over time). Heavily used grass athletic fields also tend to deteriorate over the course of a playing season and are often closed by park officials during moderate to heavy rain, resulting in game and practice cancellations.
The parks department spokesperson told WSR that “safety is always our top priority, and we follow all guidelines to ensure that we are using materials that are tested and approved by experts.” NYC Parks manages artificial turf at approximately 221 sites throughout the city, including fields and playgrounds.
A significant expansion of playing field space for Riverside Park is on the way, with workers busy on the long-awaited final phase of Riverside Park South, at the park’s southernmost end near West 64th Street. The final section will feature a large turf athletic field marked for multiple sports. The space the field will occupy has now been graded flat and lighting towers are in place.
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I thought artificial turf was out and grass was back in.
Disappointing to see NYC spending all this money on an unsustainable project when they could be investing it into natural grass fields. Communities all over the country are successfully maintaining grass. And where will all of those rolls of used turf end up? Likely sitting in a landfill leaching PFAS and plastic into the ground. Tragic.
There’s no chance that a grass field would be able to take even half of the playtime of what the artificial field will be able to accommodate. From spring to fall the field is occupied non-stop most weekends and at least once every weekday.
They are removing the chopped tires which is a massive improvement already. Unfortunately the city does not have enough green spaces to be able to accommodate natural grass fields. Anyone who has had a league that plays on it knows that they are out of commission constantly and require closure during months on for rest and reseeding.
Agree. Grass is so much better and can be used for anything.
Grass would indeed be nice & probably preferred by everyone using the field. Sadly, those who advocate it, especially by comparison to “communities all over the country” are likely are not familiar with the NYC sports field situation in general, and 107 in particular. From sodding a grass field to being playable, it typically takes around 2-3 weeks for the sod to root and become strong enough to withstand play. Given the heavy use of 107 (probably 40-50 hours intense use per week), it would likely need re-sodding at least annually (and likely more often), taking the field out of use for a few weeks while costing a few hundred thousand dollars each time. Of course, you would need exponentially higher maintenance (watering, line drawing, releveling), and still end up often playing on mere dirt. You will not be able to use the field year round anymore. You will need to close it down each time there is more than a sprinkle of rain. Central Park’s North Meadow is a great example for that – they only manage by significantly limiting use.
agree with pay the Pipper. as a 45 year resident and former baseball coach, both Little league and jr high, no way grass holds up-unfortunately- with even a little use when it is wet or when we have very dry conditions.