Hooksett, NH – Engineering firm TFMoran has announced that southern New Hampshire will soon have its own vaulted dome, designed for indoor sports such as men’s and women’s lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, flag football, baseball, softball, and more. The New Hampshire SportsDome was spearheaded by local youth-sports supporters Joel Hatin and Frank Bizzarro.
The state-of-the art, elite turf surface complex is located on Benton Road in Hooksett. The facility is an air-supported structure with a translucent roof (allowing in natural light) above a 350-foot by 230-foot turf field, with a maximum ceiling height of 72 feet at its center. The field can be divided in half providing two soccer fields for 9 versus 9 play, or one full-size 11 versus 11 field.
NH SportsDome exterior
The dome is heated and insulated for winter use, and air-conditioned for summer play. As the term “air-supported” suggests, the structure is held up by air pressure, maintained by a high-tech system of blowers and controls.
Regional engineering firm, TFMoran, Inc., was retained to provide local and state permitting services, civil and traffic engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture, and construction administration services for the new sports dome. Construction has been led by general contractor Severino Trucking Co., Inc. with the air inflated structure provided by The Farley Group.
“As you might expect, proposing a first-of-its-kind structure in New Hampshire wasn’t without some unique hurdles,” said TFMoran principal, Nicholas Golon, PE. “Given its magnitude, siting the structure to minimize sightlines from adjacent properties, while maintaining required setbacks and providing the necessary utility infrastructure, were challenging issues. Another significant element was snow removal, to make sure that snowfall would not pose any risk of damage to the structure. Site grading and drainage were carefully designed so that snow and snowmelt could be conveyed safely and efficiently away from the structure and surrounding parking through an open drainage system of swales and infiltration basins.
“Luckily, the design and construction team had incredibly dedicated individuals working on the project, who carefully considered all options to make this project a reality,” concluded Golon. “It was a real team effort!”
