Joliet Slammers Field Turf Work Should Begin Next Week: City

JOLIET, IL - On Wednesday, the city of Joliet issued a press release to set the record straight about the status of the FieldTurf project. Earlier this week, The Joliet Herald-News print newspaper published a story headlined "Joliet Slammers owner says new field has a drainage problem." The Joliet Slammers minor league baseball season begins on May 15. The city has spent more than $2 million since last October in renovating the stadium, which has been renamed as Route 66 Joliet Stadium. Last fall, crews ripped out the grass. The city plans to install FieldTurf inside the stadium to make the stadium into a multi-purpose venue.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the city of Joliet issued the following press release.

"Recent misinformation has indicated that subsurface drainage problems would potentially delay the installation of the playing surface at the Route 66 Stadium for an extended period of time. When a perceived drainage issue was recently identified, an independent testing firm was retained to verify that proper materials were placed during the installation of the field sub-base. Testing has confirmed that the product placed on the field is the correct material."

The city went on to explain the matter further.

"Extended winter conditions contributed to the perceived drainage issue at Route 66 Stadium. It is not uncommon for a construction project of this size and nature to experience minor issues such as this. Throughout the construction process, quality control measures have been employed to ensure that proper materials and construction techniques have been utilized.

"The field turf installation project for Route 66 Stadium is on schedule to be completed prior to the Joliet
Slammers home opening day on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. Work has been completed on the underground
drainage system and field sub-base. It expected that installation of the field turf playing surface will
begin within the next week. It is anticipated that the installation of the playing surface will take
approximately two weeks, weather permitting."

Images taken last September via Joliet Patch Editor John Ferak