PORTLAND, Ore. — After a decade, the turf at Northeast Portland's Grant High School field has come to the end of its useful life and will soon be replaced due to safety reasons. This week, Portland Public Schools Board Chair Gary Hollands and City Commissioner Dan Ryan announced they will replace the Grant Bowl's artificial turf field and open for fall sports in 2024.
Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) and Portland Public Schools (PPS) will work together to develop cost estimates, project roles, a funding plan and detailed timelines. Both organizations share a commitment to Grant High School students and the greater community.
"We all care about our kids and our communities and we want what's best and sometimes things like this happen to be able to make things better moving forward," said Marshall Haskins, senior director of athletics for PPS.
On Aug. 12, PPS and PP&R sent a joint communication notifying the community that independent testing had determined that the Grant Bowl field was not safe for permitted sports activities. This included interscholastic athletics as well as any permitted sports games or practices by community groups, teams and leagues.
The turf at Grant Bowl was installed in September 2013. It had an 8-10 year expected lifespan.
To ensure the Grant Bowl remained safe as it neared the end of its lifespan, PP&R contracted an outside firm specializing in sports turf maintenance and testing. After the field failed its first test in November 2022, PP&R followed up with thorough maintenance.
Unfortunately the field again failed a second professionally administered test in December 2022. The professional synthetic turf contractor recommended PP&R add more crumb rubber fill to help increase the field’s cushioning; this effort was completed in May of last year.
Despite this addition, the field failed a third safety test in May.
PP&R issued PPS a "Non-Parks Use Permit" on Aug. 9 to repair the Grant Bowl's artificial turf. The repair was done the following day, followed by another safety test by an external vendor.
Unfortunately, the field again failed the test, and PPS deemed it unsafe for Grant's student-athletes.
Grant's football team, along with its boys and girls soccer teams, will be unable to play or practice on the field this season.
"Portland Parks and Recreation are working with Portland Public Schools to find other field options across the City's park system that would be safe for Grant High School sports this school year," said Mark Ross, spokesman for PP&R.
Currently, the public can use the field even though students can't.