Construction continues on the massive renovation of Tully Stadium, with the facility’s 12-year-old turf next in line to go.
The fieldhouse should be completed by Jan. 31, according to Paige Hershey, Spring Branch Independent School District’s Director of Athletics, with work on the turf scheduled for sometime this spring.
Bids currently are being taken by the district, Hershey said. Work on replacing Tully Stadium’s approximately 72,000-square feet of AstroTurf will begin after soccer season is over and end before the 2008 football season, but Hershey didn’t give a timeline for how long that phase of the project would take.
“It’s fairly extensive because (construction crews) come in and remove the turf, then judging from the type of field we put in, there are more requirements,” Hershey said. “Then there’s work we’ll have to do because the stadium sits below street level. We’ll have to be careful not to interfere with the water table.”
The type of turf installed at Tully Stadium, which seats 15,000, won’t be determined until the district accepts a bid.
Spring Branch ISD is accepting competitive sealed proposals until 1 p.m. Jan. 29 for the replacement and renovation of the turf. Proposals will be read at that time.
A pre-proposal meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Jan. 22 at the Spring Branch ISD Planning and Construction Department, 1066 S. Gessner Rd., Bldg. A.
The last soccer game at Tully Stadium likely will be in late March or early April. The state tournament is April 10-12.
Spring football games will be played at Grob Stadium.
Tully’s artificial surface has been replaced every 12 years since its original installation in 1972. Tully had a grass field when it opened in 1966.
Tully Stadium, named for former Spring Branch High School athletic director Darrell Tully, annually hosts about 120 football games, including home games for the district’s four high schools and seven middle schools, and more than 70 soccer matches.
Already completed or close to completion at the stadium are a refurbished fieldhouse, which will include athletic department offices, two training rooms, enough team and officials locker rooms to serve both Tully and neighboring Don Coleman Community Coliseum, and room for other operations as needed.
Among the new amenities, Hershey said, will be air conditioning. She added operations are expected to begin in the fieldhouse in early February.
“(Tully) will be more a multipurpose facility now than when it was built,” Hershey said. “We want to be a complex with room to support activities at both facilities; having volleyball at the same time as football and basketball and soccer at the same time. We want to have room to take care of everybody.”
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