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/27931
Facility&Operations Turning to several general contractors for recommendations and estimates, Rockhurst administrators were being told that their athletic field renovation would take between 4 and 6 weeks ing the field altogether. The turf field was in almost continuous use for football, soccer teams, lacrosse, and physical education classes. When their grass facilities were unplayable due to weather condi- tions, the school’s baseball and track and field teams also used the turf field for practice. Their old synthetic turf field was 9 years old and the warranty had expired. Estimates of up to $80,000 to re- condition the old turf field for the next school year deemed the re- pair option to be impractical and unacceptable. Turning to several general contractors for recommendations and estimates, Rockhurst administrators were being told that their ath- letic field renovation would take between 4 and 6 weeks, and that the work would have to be done after football season ended in late 2010. Only one of the general contractors in the mix offered a much shorter time frame, MDH Turf, a new subsidiary of McAnany Construction, Shawnee, KS. McAnany and MDH com- mitted to completing the field in only 2 weeks. “EXTREME TURF MAKEOVER” Assigning Ed Huggins as project manager, MDH Turf imple- mented a design/build solution that included TigerSports Americas, Inc., as the synthetic turf supplier and VSR Design as the architect for the field design enhancements. The TigerTurf US operation is based in Austin, TX while VSR Design is out of Overland Park, KS. Huggins has had a working relationship with VSR Design for more than 20 years. “The level of care and concern from the collective team im- pressed me quite a bit. McAnany had reps from TigerTurf meet with officials from our school to explain about the durability and other characteristics of the TIGER XQ 48 turf product that they had specified. I had every confidence that McAnany and MDH Turf would take special care with the sub-surface and grading of our field,” Father Baum said. “McAnany also offered up and promised a short, 2-week turn- around time so that our summer camps and practices for football and soccer would not be hindered. It became apparent within only a few days of beginning the project that they were keeping their word. They had crews working through the blisteringly summer heat to stay on schedule,” Father Baum said. The project got under way on July 23 and wrapped on August 9. Undertaking what it now calls The Extreme Turf Makeover, MDH employed three continuous shifts of crew members for several con- secutive days to meet the tight project schedule and install 103,000 square feet of new turf. Recycling the old turf and rubber infill was an additional re- quirement for the Rockhurst project. Using an extraction device >> Photo 1: THE REMOVED AND RECYCLED OLD TURF from the field was made available for other sports, landscaping or recreation applications. >> Photo 2: THE GRADE of the field was adjusted to accommodate a variety of uses by the school’s athletic department. >> Photo 3: MDH Turf added freshly cleaned, recycled rubber infill as the final step for the new Rockhurst High School synthetic turf field. The project was completed in only 17 days. Photo 1 Photo 3 Photo 2 34 SportsTurf | April 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com