SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/605094
www.stma.org December 2015 | SportsTurf 37 New indoor flooring option available M ore than 6 years since the flood of 2008 destroyed the University of Iowa's Voxman Music Building, the Hawkeye Marching Band is finally enjoying the ben- efits of a new indoor practice facility. This new $15 million facility features a full-scale artificial turf practice field that additionally provides much-needed indoor athletic facilities for the University's intramural and club sports, as well as some athletic department teams. Iowa's intense weather produces temperatures swings that range from below zero in the winter months to above 90 degrees during the summer. As a result, designers and builders need re- liable, durable insulation strategies that perform well in both ex- tremes. During the project development phase, the design-build team recognized that a key consideration for the University would be how to mitigate long-term heating and cooling costs for a build- ing roughly the size of a football field for the life of the facility. For a space that size, a PEX (crosslinked polyethylene) in-floor radiant heating provided a lot of advantages over forced-air. "Because this was a design-build project, there was a lot of op- portunity to provide value analysis-based solutions during the pre- construction phase," remarked Jim Seelman of MBA Incorporated (MBA), the subcontractor responsible for the indoor turf scope of work under Russell. MBA was familiar with a variety of architec- tural grade expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation products that would support the radiant heating system. Since the design called for some 80,000 square feet of under-slab insulation, Seelman rec- ommended ACH Foam Technologies' Foam-Control Plus+ as an ideal solution. In part, Seelman's recommendation centered on the product's favorable cost compared to XPS alternatives. Seelman estimates that selecting Foam-Control Plus+ saved the project more than $100,000 in material costs alone over the original specified product. "Installing the panels is very similar to installing any other drivable floor product with the notable exceptions of having to connect the power cords between each panel and having to plan out the power circuits for the floor well in advance. "Overall, the results were exactly what we hoped for; our grass under the LED panels was in better condition coming out of the concert than it was going in. Anyone who has had a large stage with towers on their field for more than a couple days can attest that normally the grass under the towers is the most damaged and yellowed, and takes the longest to recover from the concert. Our turf under the Taylor Swift towers was green, vibrant, strong, and TV-ready as we pulled off the LED panels. "I remain excited about the future with LED grow lights for use in stadium turf management, and we expect to use these LED panels more going forward here in Houston."—Dan Berg- strom, Senior Director Major League Operations, Houston As- tros ■ ST