Arlington Not Planning to Join Class Action Lawsuit Against Synthetic Turf Installer

...The fields, which are under warranty until early 2019, will be replaced early so that all three Long Bridge Park fields will not be replaced simultaneously.

Fields come with an eight year warranty, and are generally replaced eight or nine years after installation, according to Lisa Grandle, Arlington County Parks & Recreation’s park development division chief.

The warranty for one of the Long Bridge Park’s synthetic turf fields covers defective material or installation workmanship problems, but doesn’t cover what Grandle called normal wear and tear or heavy usage...

https://www.arlnow.com/2018/02/27/arlington-isnt-planning-joining-class-action-lawsuit-against-synthetic-turf-manufacturer/#disqus_thread

Turf Company Knowingly Sold Bad Product to Maryland Parks, Lawsuit Says

An artificial turf company accused of selling $570 million worth of defective turf to schools, local governments and parks departments is facing a class action lawsuit from unhappy customers in dozens of states, including D.C., Virginia and Maryland.

The parks department in Montgomery County, Maryland recently joined the lawsuit after officials were forced in March to tear out defective turf at the field outside Montgomery Blair High School. An officials said the replacement cost taxpayers $700,000.

"We know that if a kid falls and hits their head on something that hard, whether it be a cement sidewalk or artificial turf field that has deteriorated, the danger is concussion or death from the impact," concerned parent Janis Sartucci said...

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Turf-Company-Knowingly-Sold-Defective-Unsafe-Product-Lawsuit-Says-470776623.html

Despite Failures, San Diego Unified Just Can’t Quit FieldTurf

San Diego Unified had at least six Fieldturf fields fall apart before the warranty was up, and two were replaced with the same defective product. Still, district officials have such confidence in the company, no other turf manufacturer has been allowed to compete for jobs within the district.


This is Part Three in our four-part series. Here’s where to find Part One and Part Two. 
Twenty artificial turf fields that once gleamed in the San Diego sun have quickly fallen apart over the last decade thanks to a defect.
The field failures have created dilemmas for school districts that tried to get replacements from FieldTurf USA under the manufacturer’s eight-year warranty. Often, schools were faced with the option of choosing a free replacement with the same defective material, or paying thousands of dollars more to upgrade to a non-defective product that would hold up as originally promised.
San Diego Unified – the region’s largest FieldTurf buyer – had at least two defective fields replaced with more of the same turf that failed...

Voice of San Diego scoured thousands of San Diego Unified documents and sought an interview with district officials to discuss the district’s FieldTurf history. Officials declined multiple interview requests and instead made defensive, misleading and at times outright dishonest claims by email.
For starters, Reed-Porter said district fields were replaced for free under warranty before they actually failed as a preventative measure.
“The FieldTurf fields in San Diego Unified did not fail. It would be inaccurate for you insinuate or report in your story,” she wrote Sept. 21. “According to FieldTurf at the time, the fields were beginning to show signs of wear, and might not last though (sic) the entire warranty period.”
That’s not quite what district and FieldTurf officials said in emails when $1.5 million worth of FieldTurf Duraspine turf installed in 2010 at Mira Mesa, San Diego and Morse high schools needed replacement after only four years...

 ...The district has had such confidence in FieldTurf over the years, no other manufacturer has been allowed to compete for the turf job. Public officials continue to argue FieldTurf’s superior product and warranty allows them to skip competitive bidding normally required by state law for public works projects.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/news/despite-failures-san-diego-unified-just-cant-quit-fieldturf/

FieldTurf USA turned failure into opportunity when dozens of its artificial turf fields quickly fell apart at local public schools.

This is Part Two in a four-part series. Catch up with Part One here.
FieldTurf USA turned failure into opportunity when dozens of its artificial turf fields quickly fell apart at the region’s public schools in recent years.

Though customers paid $450,000 to $800,000 per field for “the best” and “the next generation of engineering excellence,” certain FieldTurf fields frayed, faded and shed after only a few football seasons, years before the eight-year warranty ran out.

The field failures – caused by a defect in the turf grass blades in the company’s popular Duraspine field – raised safety concerns for some schools and spurred districts to seek free warranty replacements from the Canadian turf manufacturer.
FieldTurf’s response came with fewer apologies than “offers” and “opportunities” for schools to upgrade their turf field to the latest and greatest for another $25,000 to $300,000, records show.
Some school districts took that offer to avoid getting more defective turf and to finally get a quality product. Schools like Carlsbad High, Fallbrook High, Valley Center High and Mesa College all paid FieldTurf a second time to replace defective fields that were still under warranty.
No one held the turf company line and wrung more money from local customers than regional FieldTurf salesman Tim Coury.
Coury also employed legally questionable methods to get new fields built, public records obtained by Voice of San Diego show.
The worst example was found in emails produced by Oceanside Unified...

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/the-consummate-salesman/

WTOP: Turf battle in California leads to questions in Montgomery Co.

[Note: We know the artificial turf field at Walter Johnson High School has been shredding for years.]

WASHINGTON — A turf battle unfolding in California has raised questions about artificial turf fields installed in Montgomery County. 

The county school system has been contacted by lawyers in California asking how artificial fields installed at three schools in 2009 and 2010 are holding up.

Attorneys Peter Lindborg and Irina Mazor, with Lindborg & Mazor LLP, represent California school districts in lawsuits alleging that artificial turf fields they bought from FieldTurf USA are falling apart and that FieldTurf USA knowingly installed an inferior product. 

The suit involving Bret Harte Union High School District, Chaffey Joint Union High School District and Crystal Springs Upland School alleges FieldTurf misrepresented the quality of the turf and knew — or should have known — the product would fail.

“What you’re looking at is fibers that break, fibers that split, fibers that lay down and won’t get back up, so that you have a slick smooth surface” instead of a field with fibers that stand up like real grass, Lindborg says.

Further, Lindborg says, because of the splitting of the fibers, after a rain “you will have clumps of busted artificial turf looking like [mowed] grass on the edge of the field. Artificial turf doesn’t grow back, last time I checked.”...

http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2016/03/turf-battle-in-california-leads-to-questions-in-montgomery-co/

Why is Walter Johnson HS Artificial Turf Shredding? #defective #artificialturf

Pictures were taken of the Walter Johnson High School artificial turf field on May 3, 2014. 
Piles and piles of shredded plastic grass were evident on the field. The plastic grass fibers are shredding.  
Just like was detailed in the FieldTurf v. TenCate lawsuit.

Plastic fibers in piles on WJHS artificial turf field. 

Richard Montgomery HS Artificial Turf Field: Why Is It Fading in Spots?

Towson U. Artificial Turf Replaced after only 4.5 Years

Towson University put in a FieldTurf artificial turf stadium field in 2007. They are already replacing that field with a new type of FieldTurf artificial turf.

The Parents' Coalition received the following comment on the Towson University replacement project:

The original field still had a full 3 years left on it's warranty and it was installed with the same material in and around the same time that Montgomery County installed its (overpriced) fields.
I wonder how much this public institution paid for this “upgrade”??

Would anyone from Towson University like to weigh in on why the field was replaced so soon, and how much this replacement cost the University?

MCPS says that their artificial turf fields will last 10 years.
MCPS artificial turf fields are from the same product line that was installed at Towson University's stadium.

Towson University's artificial turf stadium field that only lasted 4.5 years was FieldTurf Duraspine. We can confirm that Duraspine is the same FieldTurf product that was installed at Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson High School stadiums.

Artificial Turf: TenCate Grass Manufacture v. MoCo Sod Farmers

As a reminder and follow-up to the latest finding on the ground rubber tires installed in our county (to quote Phil Andrews [D-District 3], "It's safer...")  Here again are the 2 different methods for the 'grass' that could be used on our county playing fields. Your choice...

TenCate:

Method used by our Montgomery County Sod Farmers: