Today’s 57th  Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC will take place on some new turfgrass and fortunately it will be well protected by a special cover designed to allow light and rain through the product.    The National Mall recently underwent a major renovation of the first 4 panels in front of the US Capital building which you can see in my previous blogs.  Planning for the Inauguration event has been on the top of the agenda since we started with the project.

Similar to what is used at MLB baseball stadiums for concerts,  the flooring called  Teraplast is one of several types of turf protection being used to protect the mall’s 6 1/2 acres of newly installed  tall type fescue turfgrass.   They started installing the cover about 3 days ago and will begin to remove it this afternoon when the president is heading back to the white house.

With over 400,000 sq ft of teraplast being installed in various areas around the mall including under the main tents of the CBS and CNN structures,  it’s the most ever laid in one place according to the installers.   In fact they had to obtain the flooring from multiple sports venues around the USA.

My good friend Steve Legros is heading up the install of the cover and the mall’s new turf manager Mike Stachowicz  ( photo above) is finally on board to help bring the new grass out of dormancy and to keep it looking great.  Congrats to him on his new job and to Steve and the Teraplast crew for doing a great job at the Mall.