Real roots causing issues with county’s artificial turf
Despite costly repairs, cause of problem is still unknown
POJOAQUE — Long before Santa Fe County started to build the $1 million Pojoaque Valley Recreation Complex off County Road 84 about four years ago, a family of cottonwood trees developed deep roots adjacent to the picturesque property.
The trees, alongside the Rio Tesuque just outside a chain-link fence on the south side of brand-new playing fields, provide shade and oxygen and create a natural and attractive buffer to the outside world.
But the towering cottonwoods also have started to wreak havoc on the artificial turf.
Their bulging roots are branching out underneath, creating ripples in the synthetic grass and forcing the county to act fast to deal with a — literally — growing problem.
“This is the first artificial turf field that the county has ever installed,” Colleen Baker, the county’s project manager, said Tuesday. “We’ve never encountered [tree roots growing sideways underneath artificial turf]. The engineers never encountered it. The landscape architects never encountered it. It’s just not something that anybody foresaw happening.”
As a result, the county is in the process of installing a 3-foot-deep polyurethane root barrier between the trees and the field, adding at least $22,000 to the cost of the project. Baker said the county also plans to pay a contractor to pull up the turf, remove the roots already growing underneath and then reestablish the turf. The cost of that work is still unknown, she said.
The repair work isn’t covered under a warranty with the company that installed the turf, she said.
“It’s not an installation issue; it’s more of an unforeseen site condition,” she said.
“It would seem like the trees would have plenty of water towards the river,” Baker added. “Nobody anticipated that there would be enough water under the turf field and under the drain system to attract the roots, but apparently there is, so we need to prevent this from happening again, and we’re taking every precaution we can. It was unforeseen circumstances based on the conditions of the site. Unfortunate hindsight.”
County Commissioner Henry Roybal, whose district includes Pojoaque, said the tree roots have been the only problem that has surfaced in the project.
“We need to make sure that we don’t keep dealing with this issue in the future,” he said, adding he’s heard the recreation facility is driving up membership in youth sports.
“It’s a great facility that’s going to serve our constituents well,” Roybal said.
The county purchased the site from the Pojoaque Valley School District around 2014 after the district relocated the girls softball field to the high school, Baker said.
“The county purchased the site to renovate it and maintain it as a soccer complex and Little League complex,” she said, adding the overall plan is to make it a “community park” that includes picnic tables, playgrounds and other amenities. The installation of the artificial turf was the first phase of the project. Parking and grading improvements were part of the second phase. And the third phase, which is almost complete, calls for shade structures, a demonstration garden, two playgrounds and a T-ball field, she said.
Baker said she first saw bulges in the turf while she was reviewing improvements to the site in August.
“We didn’t know what the cause was, but we noticed the wrinkles,” she said. “We explored it a little more and determined that it was roots from the trees along the Rio Tesuque that were growing into the field.”
Emails obtained under a public records request show former Public Works Director Tony Flores expressed concern at the time that “the original installation was not checked during the clearing and grubbing phase and undergrowth was missed.” But Baker said Flores’ concerns were unfounded.
“The contractor cleared and grubbed … just fine,” she said. “These are trees along the river [whose] roots are growing sideways into the field, so no, it’s not a construction defect. If we had experienced this before, we might’ve known to put the barrier in then. … Now we know that there’s enough moisture that it’s attracting the roots to grow sideways toward the field.”
Baker and Roybal said the contractor that installed the turf, Colorado-based Academy Sports Turf, determined the roots, which have only stretched into the sidelines so far, don’t pose a public safety risk.
“The roots haven’t grown far enough in and aren’t high enough to cause, in his opinion, any kind of risk or potential safety issue for use of the field,” Baker said. “They’re not growing into where the soccer players are playing, so rather than disrupt their season, he felt like it was OK to wait until after their season finished.”
Baker said the county hopes to install the root barrier soon and remove the roots already underneath the turf over winter.
“We hope it will all be back to new condition by next spring,” she said. “That’s our intent anyway, is to have it completely repaired by the time the new season comes around.”
A man who answered the phone at Academy Sports Turf declined to comment, though he said the company would repair the turf “when somebody comes up with a solution.”