Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry LandTek crew members pull on the edge of the new turf at War Memorial Field on Thursday to help keep slack out of the seams.

The installation of the turf at War Memorial Field has begun.

A crew from LandTek, out of Long Island, N.Y., began the process on Thursday.

Each piece of turf will be glued and sewn to its neighbors.

For the initial piece (at the west end of the field), the crew did a leapfrog maneuver to take the slack out of the turf.

“We’re pulling it tight,” Foreman Al Zeglin said. “We tug at the seams, kind of like folding a piece of paper.”

As crew members latched onto the edge of the turf, Zeglin drove an excavator over the seam. As the equipment moved along the field, the crew members jumped up and moved to a new spot on the edge.

“The tire rolling over it is like your hand making the crease,” he said. “It keeps the slack out of the seams.”

The details at the middle of the field were not visible, on Thursday, but the very edge of the field is a traditional green.

The end zone and areas immediately outside the endlines and sidelines are a dark, navy blue.