New Parkland

Jones Beach    Infra-structure    Jones Beach Theater    Robert Moses    

The improvements to this section of the park would create approximately 45 acres of new parkland, while the ribbon of asphalt, constituting the circuit during the race, would function as a 50 foot wide promenade-like surface for walking, running and biking the remainder of the year, with each section interconnected by wide, temporary walkways placed across the grass.

The footprint of all circuit surfaces located west of parking field 4, including field 3, which remains closed and almost entirely unused the majority of the year, can be used for walking, running, and biking.

While the underground tunnels, both existing and proposed, would seamlessly connect the acres of new parkland to the North of Ocean Parkway, with the beachfront boardwalk to the south, greatly increasing the amount of hard-surface area within the park available for public recreation.

Through this proposal, public recreation within Jones Beach will take on a completely new meaning, scope and scale, a far greater scale than the current New York State Revitalization Project envisions. U.S. Grand Prix at Jones Beach f1 New Parkland - A proposal to bring F1 to NY.

The use of temporary, inter-locking tile sport surfaces, manufactured by a remarkable company called SPORT COURT, can facilitate the installation of numerous sports activities within the new parkland, such as tennis, basketball, mini-soccer fields (calcetto), and volleyball.

The permeable Sport Court tile system can also be used to create large, solid-surface areas for non-sport public use, such as open & covered seating areas.

While permanent courts can sustain damaged during the winter months, the SPORT COURT product can be easily disassembled and stored during the winter.  In addition, the remarkable versatility and temporary nature of the SPORT COURT, allows both the location, and quantity of each sport to be changed as needed, allowing unprecedented flexibility, which simply does not exist with permanent courts.

Each Sport Court can be directly installed on a solid surface, or over their ingenious Sport Base foundation system, which eliminates the need for a solid surface base, on which to install the inter-locking Sport Court tiles.

Alternately, the Sport Base foundation could conceivably be engineered further by Sport Court, for direct application on a firm and level grass surface.  Considering all the new parkland would be re-graded higher than its current elevation, means even greater permeability, keeping the ground surface stable.

However, should a solid surface base be needed underneath each Sport Court, then engineered, pre-cast, inter-locking concrete panels of manageable size could be trucked-in and simply laid into place like the pieces of a puzzle, forming the base, on which, each Sport Court can be installed.  Then, inter-graded perimeter skirting can be installed allowing safe transition from the surrounding grass and walkways, onto the Sport Court surface.

The relative ease of installation and removal of the Sport Court systems means each Sport Court (i.e., tennis or volleyball) can be installed in the spring, dismantled during the race, re-installed after the race, then removed during the winter months to greatly extend the economic life of each court.  

Of course, within the context of this annual installation and dismantling process unique to Jones Beach, each playing court could be specially engineer by Sport Court, for this application, and for greater longevity. 

Since parking field 3 remains closed and unused the majority of the year, the spring-time installation cycle can be done on the solid asphalt surface of field 3, to facilitate the fast removal of each court prior to the race.  - see below.

The cost of this annual installation and dismantling cycle would be easily covered through the incremental tax revenue generated by the race event, for the Parks Department.