Contractors will start dismantling and reassembling the new field lights at Memorial Field this week, Green Wave Athletic Director Peter Serino said.
The work includes installing two new light poles in the middle of the field and replacing all the field lights with new shielded LED lights.
“I think it will be surprising to a lot of people how much brighter the field is, and how much darker it will be just outside the playing area,” Serino said.
The $640,000 project represents the first major overhaul of the field lighting since it was first erected in 1990.
Town Meeting this past spring approved paying for the work using Community Preservation Act dollars. It’s part of a larger, multi-phase $2 million rehabilitation planned for the venerable field that includes relocating the junior varsity baseball field to the back corner and regrading a major portion of the general field space.
Advocates for the project said the existing lighting array was failing in spots, and because the components were so old, replacements were no longer available.
Island Lighting & Power Systems won the bid to perform the work. Serino said the plan for the coming week is to dismantle the existing light poles and stanchions located on the visitors’ side of the football field and start drilling holes for the two new poles.
The poles on the home side of the football field will be reused. However, all the lights will be replaced.
The field lights will feature shields similar to those used at the turf fields behind the middle/high school. The shields cut down on light pollution, directing light downward just onto the playing surface.
Abington has an anti-light pollution bylaw that prohibits new construction from installing lighting that trespasses onto neighboring properties or shines up into the sky.
Visitors to the field over the next couple weeks will also notice trenches between the light poles as new power supply lines are run. The trenches may be covered over with steel plates and the work areas roped off.
K9Youth sports teams that practice at Memorial Field are being relocated to other fields in town during the work.
Serino said the lighting work should be done in time for the Green Wave’s first home football game on Sept. 13.
Bids for the field work portion, including regrading areas of the field and relocating the baseball field, are scheduled to be opened soon, Serino said.
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