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/533607
36 SportsTurf | July 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com D ue to the expectation of today's sports enthusiasts, the grow- ing trend is for every sports complex to have a storm water drainage system. Youngsville, LA, with a population of 8,100, is one such town. The Youngsville Sports Complex is a 70-acre complex that opened in May 2014. Costing approximately $16 mil- lion, it was funded with a dedicated 1% sales tax, approved by Youngsville voters. The complex has six soccer, four softball, and five baseball fields, 10 tennis courts, a 1-mile long walk- ing path, fully stocked fishing pond, a playground, plus concession stands, shops and facilities for festivals and corporate events. First-year attendance was projected at 500,000. The complex next month will host the 2015 PONY Baseball Mustang World Series with teams from across the US, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Asia/Pacific. The use of corrugated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe on the site reduced the cost for the drainage system portion of this publicly funded project. Large diameter corrugated HDPE pipe along with more than 500 catch basins were used to construct the system. "We are certainly seeing expansion of the trend to provide underground drainage to community sports facili- ties," said Tony Radoszewski, president of Plastics Pipe Institute, Inc. (PPI), the trade association representing all segments of the plastic pipe industry. "Players, management, owners and fans have always wanted a way to get water off the field quickly. In the old days, the only way to prevent rain from getting on the field was to roll out the tarp, but that would often kill the grass. Or for local fields, the games were just cancelled, and many times the field was unplayable for several days." Underground drain- age systems were developed that would collect and move the water. Sometimes these pipe systems even have a vacuum to speed up the process. Yankee Stadium, for example, is also equipped with a fan system that draws water into the system and can also be reversed to provide airflow for quicker drying and promote better root growth. "Following the success at some of the most venerable pro-sports stadiums," Radoszewski continued, "local fields such as Youngsville put in what is basi- cally the same underground drainage system. The nearby town of Broussard with a population of 8,600 broke ground in October for its own sports park, simi- lar to Youngsville's complex. These are the fields that everyone dreams about, and these communities are making them a reality." The pipe used at Youngsville is made with at least 40% recycled content (Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc.). More than 23,800 linear feet of the pipe in diameters ranging from 10 to 48 inches was used on the project; it meets ASTM F2648 standard specifications and will support H-25 live loads. Design engineering firm, C. H. Fenstermaker (Lafayette, LA), selected HDPE pipe SMALL-TOWN SPORTS COMPLEX HAS BIG-TIME DRAINAGE SYSTEM IRRIGATION & DRAINAGE Editor's note: This article was supplied by SCA Communications, North Baldwin, NY on behalf of the Plastics Pipe Institute.