The students at St. Joseph's School in Port Elgin are now enjoying a brand new playing field with a synthetic surface. This artificial surface, manufactured and installed by Sportexe, offers low abrasion, excellent wet and dry traction, along with high durability. This system is designed for unlimited safe play all year round.
Sportexe is a company that specializes in providing artificial playing surfaces for professional sports facilities, universities, and golf practice facilities. The surface comes with a 10 year warrantee but the expected life is 15 years or more. The first two weeks of the project were spent preparing the base and then the next two weeks were required to apply the artificial turf. The total cost of this project was $200,000.00.
In the past, drainage problems at the school prevented the growth of a natural grass field. The yard was dirt that in heavy rains was under water. Now, the students will have a grass-like surface on which to play. St. Joseph's is the first school in Ontario to receive this type of surface for the school yard, but other school boards are also in the process of having this system installed at some of their schools.