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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/134296
pending on the amount of water they should be expected to handle. These perforated pipes are laid in trenches, surrounded by clean stone or coarse sand. In some cases, filter fabric may also be used. The deeper the drains are placed, the slower will be the initial response time. Whether the field uses flat drains or trenches, water flowing into the drainage system can carry with it silt or clay particles or other contaminants. Therefore, it is important to surround the drainage pipes with clean stone (in this case, clean is defined as being without silt or clay contamination) or coarse sand, both of which help to remove those particles and prevent them from entering the drainage system. MOVEMENT OF WATER OFF THE FIELD Whether a field uses flat or trench drains, both are sloped to the edges of a rectangular field. The drains should extend 10' – 15' beyond the sidelines themselves to an area where the water is deposited in perimeter collector pipes. Depending on the grading plan, the amount of water to be moved and other factors, intermediate collector pipes also may be included in the drainage plan; again, this is an issue where a builder and a field design professional can provide advice. Placement of collector pipes may depend upon the sport itself. Most baseball or softball fields include intermediate collector pipes starting approximately halfway up the sideline, or foul lines, and running parallel to the centerline. Some football or soccer fields also may www.stma.org include intermediate collector pipes depending upon the grade of the subbase, the amount of water expected, how quickly the field must be available after rain and other factors. These intermediate collector pipes as well as the drainage pipes move the water to perimeter collector pipes, which in turn move it to a disposal site such as a storm drain or catch basin. It is important to remember that most of the projects being designed today for synthetic turf consist of what is known as a drainage layer of stone (typically 6" to 8" deep) under the entire field. This increases the efficiency of drainage by providing another way to move water through the drainage layer of stone and away from the field. Obviously, piping will serve to move water even more quickly to the established collection/exit points. As was mentioned previously, there are multiple systems that should be employed to move water beyond the site itself, and to deposit it into a legitimate collection area. These issues will be discussed in a future article. n Mary Helen Sprecher wrote this article on behalf of the American Sports Builders Association. Available at no charge is a listing of all publications offered by the ASBA, as well as their Membership Directory. For info, 866-501-2722 or www.sportsbuilders.org. ASBA also offers its book, Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual, which contains information on sports facilities, from concept to completion. SportsTurf 35