“The sound of laughter is like the vaulted dome of a temple of happiness,” wrote Czech novelist Milan Kundera. He may not have had the New Hampshire Sportsdome in mind when he spoke these words, but southern New Hampshire will soon have its own vaulted dome for the happiness of children and adults alike as they can soon play their favorite sports indoors.

Spearheaded by local youth sports supporters Joel Hatin and Frank Bizzarro, the concept of an indoor sports dome, originally explored in 2012, will soon come to fruition as a state-ofthe-art, elite turf surface complex 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-vs-9 play, or one full-size 11-vs-11 field. The turf will be lined for multiple sports to support programs like men’s and women’s lacrosse, field hockey, soccer, flag football, baseball and softball.

The Sportsdome 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.

Bedford-based 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 Sportsdome.

Construction is being led by General Contractor Severino Trucking Co. Inc., and 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. “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.”

He said 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.”

According to Golon, “the design and construction team had incredibly dedicated individuals working on the project, who carefully considered all options to make this project a reality. It was a real team effort.”