Danbury High School in Western Connecticut boasts a legendary track and field program and an elite running facility to match. In addition to a couple of large relays and invitationals, the school plays host to the Connecticut state track and field championships. Simply put, it’s one of the highest profile track facilities in New England.
Due to its age and heavy use, however, the track had moved past its prime and the city of Danbury moved to replace the existing Mondo surfacing in the summer/fall of 2019. The city selected John Amato and JJA Sports to engineer and oversee the project which called for a total replacement of the track surfacing and asphalt below.
ATT Sports was familiar with Amato because he was also selected to oversee the complete replacement of the legendary track at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field, home of the Penn Relays. Of course, ATT Sports installed that track in 2015.
The previous successful partnership and ATT Sports’ impeccable reputation as the most trusted track installer in the Northeast earned the company an invitation to pitch its products, services and pricing to the city. After careful deliberations, ATT Sports was hand-selected by Danbury for the special project.
The surface the city and school selected is the revolutionary Rekortan G13. It’s an IAAF-certified 13mm polyurethane track with a special high-performance, environmentally friendly gel base layer. Danbury is now the only school in New England with a gel-based running track that’s as good for the athletes running on it as it is for the environment.
The city also opted for a visually stunning track with a “Berlin Blue” oval featuring orange exchange zones. Not only are the colored exchange zones visually impressive, but they also serve a purpose, to better show the area in which runners can legally hand off the baton during sprint relay events.
ATT Sports partnered with H.I. Stone and Sons to perform the site work at the school. Other subcontractors included A&J Construction, who completed the paving, and TFI (Track & Field Installer) who performed the concrete work.
Construction began in July, and everyone involved needed to stick to a strict schedule to ensure completion in 2019, thus ensuring Danbury’s track and field teams could use the facility in the spring.
In addition to complete removal and replacement of the track and base, crews built new concrete curbing around the outside of the track and all new pole vault boxes and long jump pits. New netting was installed behind the end zones and all new equipment was ordered. In the end, everything concerning the running track would be brand new.
Because of the large scope of work, the stadium needed to be shut down for the duration of the project, however, ATT Sports with closely with the Danbury High School athletic department to accommodate a home football game during the 28-day curing period of the asphalt. Danbury made the most of the opportunity, winning 42-0!
Between the eco-friendly surface and inventive color scheme, this project was the perfect opportunity for ATT Sports to show once again, it is the leading track installer in the Northeast.
No one in North America has installed more gel-based running tracks, which we feel are the tracks of the future.
Danbury’s track also received an extra encapsulation layer, which is spray-applied as a final layer before the track is painted. This layer provides extra wear an UV protection. In this case, is was especially important because the orange areas are not as UV stable as those with more traditional track surfacing colors.
The end result is beautiful, but it’s also built to last. This track should last 10 to 12 years before it can simply be resurfaced, not completely replaced.
This was a project the City of Danbury and everyone at Danbury High School should be proud of, and it was an honor for ATT Sports and our partners, to be selected for this amazing job.
