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/86038
over the 8-year lifespan of the field. Then we put all the pieces back together, 2 inches of sand, 4 inches column of infield mix, and thin cut Kentucky bluegrass sod from Tuckahoe Turf Farms, thus doing the math dropping the field an inch. The construction was done in combination with contractors Nolan Thomas and Company and J and D Turf. The field graded to .5% slope out to our tarp drains was finished in about 3 weeks. We did the "infield" portion in the fall for a couple reasons, time frame in the spring but also to give the most wear portion of the field the most time grow-in and hopefully withstand what would be one of the hottest/driest summers of all time. After many meetings to decide what flooring we would use as a base, we decided to go with a 6-inch road base gravel layer. This would allow for cranes, forklifts, vehicles, you name it to move in and out and turn without the risk buckling like the other flooring options. Before the gravel was in place, a layer of plastic was put down on the field, which would eliminate gravel from moving into the rootzone layer of the field. The 1,000 tons of gravel would be laser graded, watered, and compacted. And the weather issue we thought we were going to have, the guys were wearing shorts and short sleeve t-shirts throughout most of the project. With only one day of snow, couple days of rain, most of the time we had an unsea- sonably warm winter. As the gravel started to settle, ¾-inch plywood was laid around the perimeter of the entire structure, which is where the concrete would be poured. With the massive size of the structure, just over 1 million pounds of concrete would be needed as ballast. Concrete pump trucks located on the left and right field concourses with 250 foot booms pumped concrete constantly for 3 days. All contractors on site knew the importance of the field and stadium and took all precautions to make sure nothing was damaged or left behind. The grounds shop was swept 2-3x a day, no traffic allowed on fall reno- vation work, and plywood placed to protect outfield warning track and subgrade. The engineers on the project calculated that the weight on the field was roughly 150 lbs/per sq. ft. when the project was finished. With that in mind, we really had no reason to have concern for underground irrigation and drainage. From there the next 2 weeks the structure skeleton was built and draped with fabric skin and end zone bleachers were built. The four-sided LED board has hung from the ceiling, VIP seating down the sidelines, and then finally 700 tons of beach sand arrived at midnight 4 days before the event. The Operations department watched the ballpark in shifts the week leading up to the Super Bowl; my shift was 5 pm to 5 am. We spent the wee hours of the morning leveling the sand, laying out the playing surface, watching the light guys play with their toys and on occasion playing golden tee or basketball on the Dan Patrick Show set. When the event was finally underway, the main attraction a 1- hour celebrity sand football game followed by a 1-hour concert with The Fray. After the brief show the sand was covered with 4 x www.stma.orgwww.stma.org SportsTurf 27