November 9, 1996 signaled a new beginning for Milwaukee-area sports. On that fall day, a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new home of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team took place. With that ceremony, the fate of the Brewers' old park, Milwaukee County Stadium, was sealed. County Stadium was home to professional baseball in Milwaukee from 1953 until 1965 when the Braves moved to Atlanta. In 1970, baseball was back at County Stadium when the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers.

A little more than four years after the groundbreaking of Miller Park took place, the stadium was at about 80 percent completion and work on the irrigation system was beginning.

Miller Park is a new state-of-the-art facility that features a retractable roof weighing 12,000 tons and opens and closes in just 10 minutes. There are 70 suites in the ballpark, including 20 Field Level Founders Suites and 50 additional suites on the Club Level.

Numerous restaurants and meeting rooms are other amenities within the stadium that were previously unavailable at County Stadium.

Miller Park was not your typical irrigation installation. This was a job that under normal circumstances would take two weeks, but because of the unique setting and the amount of other work going on, it took most of the winter.

Milwaukee Lawn Sprinkler Corp. of Menomonee Falls, Wis. was the company that installed to irrigation system. They had worked with the Brewers before. In 1985 they installed the irrigation system inside County Stadium. It was a collaborative effort with Reinders and Wisconsin Lawn Sprinkler.

"The system at Miller Park is remarkably similar to the system that was at County Stadium in that it introduced the idea of individual head control," said Mike Todd, owner of Milwaukee Lawn Sprinkler Corp. "When Miller Park came around, the superintendent at Miller Park, Gary Vanden Berg, requested the same scenario."

The System

The layout of Miller Park, shown in the diagram, required that Toro 640's be used in the outfield while Super 700's were used in the narrow foul areas and behind home plate. Many of the seats closest to the field are closer to the batter than the pitcher is.

With the new irrigation system at Miller Park based on individual head control, Todd used Toro 640's and Super 700's throughout the field. Because of the dimensions of the field, the 640's were used in the outfield and the 700's were used in foul territory and behind the plate. The field dimensions, designed with the input of Brewer great and Hall of Famer Robin Yount, are somewhat unique. The left field line is 344 feet, the left field power alley is 371 feet, straight-away center is 400 feet from home plate, the right power alley is 374 feet and the right field corner is 345 feet. Todd said that many of the seats closest to the field are closer to the batter than the pitcher is.

"The foul area behind home plate and the foul lines are much narrower than at County Stadium," he said. "With some of the stands being closer to the batter than the pitcher, we couldn't use the 640's down the sides because the foul area goes anywhere from 18 to 35 feet."

Super 700's were used in foul territory on block valves. There are just four block valve Super 700 zones in foul territory and the infield. The outfield contains 49 individually controlled 640 heads.

Todd explained that the system is similar to a golf course irrigation system. Each sprinkler is like its own zone. He said that there is a one inch electric valve at the base of each sprinkler head. The main feeds the solenoid valve and that valve feeds a swing joint which the head is mounted on.

Working in The Winter

The retractable roof, which weighs 12,000 tons and opens and closes in 10 minutes was not built in time to protect workers inside the new Miller Park from the harsh Wisconsin winter. "We were working in the great outdoors and it was frozen. . .we kind of limped along," said Mike Todd of Milwaukee Lawn Sprinkler Corp.

Milwaukee Lawn Sprinkler began work on the irrigation system last winter. It also happened to be one of the harshest Wisconsin winters in recent memory.

"It was horrible," Todd said of the winter. "December was a very snowy month right into January. Wisconsin can get a lot of snow, but this was more than normal."

The retractable roof was still being installed so the snowfall affected everything adversely.

"We were working in the great outdoors and it was frozen, we got snow all the time," Todd said. "That made it difficult for the grading people who were working in front of us and for our crew. We kind of limped along."

Of course, you may be wondering how an irrigation system is installed in the dead of winter with snow falling all around and a frozen sub-grade below your feet?

Well, it was quite a process. First, a large tent was placed over the infield so drainage and irrigation work could be done in thawed conditions. Quad axle trucks came back and forth with materials and hauled in clay from County Stadium that could be worked and graded into the new field. The tent was up for a few weeks according to Todd.

Portions of the main were already in before the tent was placed. The main had to be destroyed to accommodate the building of the dome over the infield and had to be redone later.

The infield was covered and is a much smaller area than the outfield. The tough winter conditions made the outfield nearly impossible to work in.

"I don't believe anyone expected this harsh of a winter. We ran out of time to get this thing completed given the fact that absolutely everything on the field froze," Todd said. "The snow accumulated in the playing surface and was mixed in with the grading material."

The sub-grade which is stone was frozen over and the site was covered with sand. To get through the sub-grade, Todd and his crew resorted to trenching with a concrete saw attachment mounted on a Bobcat.

"We used two of them on this project," he said. "In the beginning we used a 4-foot saw and the second was mounted on an 860 Case Trencher. That saw is an 8-foot diameter saw."

To try and thaw the outfield, it was suggested that hot water be used throughout the sprinkler system. Todd was skeptical at best when presented with this idea. He knew that the hot water wouldn't melt away the ice, it would just add moisture. Unwilling to put his system at risk, Todd ran a temporary water line, and sure enough, nothing melted, and more moisture was added to the frozen sub-grade, only compounding the problem.

What could be done?

The outfield had to be thawed in order for the irrigation system to be complete. Infield tarps were tied together and placed over the outfield. Portable propane heaters were brought in that pumped hot air under the tarps to thaw the outfield. It took about a week for all the portions of the infield to thaw to a level where work could continue.

Remember the large tent in the infield? Well the same thing was installed in the outfield, only not as tall. Temporary tarps covered the outfield. Several tarps that normally cover the infield when it is not in use were strung together to cover the vast expanse of frozen outfield. Portable propane heaters were brought in and they pumped hot air under these tarps, inflating them. Todd said that the heaters were monitored day and night for a week while portions of the field were thawed down to a level where the snow could melt.

"You had to see it to believe it," Todd said."One of the problems was we were trying to melt this frozen sand that had been watered in an attempt to thaw it. It took some time."

Close Quarters

Two concrete saws were used to cut through the frozen sub-grade of Miller Park. When the project started, a 4-foot saw attachment was mounted on a Bobcat and later on, an 8-foot diameter saw mounted on an 860 Case Trencher. The sub-grade, which was frozen stone, was covered in sand and snow, adding to the difficulty of installing the irrigation system.

If working in the snowfall wasn't enough, Todd had to battle cranes, iron workers putting together the roof, signs being hung, and bits and pieces falling from the sky. Not something that is typical in an everyday irrigation installation.

"It was a scream," Todd said. "A lot of work has to be done on the field itself to erect the stadium, and of course the roof was being built all winter long. Portions of the roof would be open when we got there and at times they'd have to rope off an area that was dangerous because of sparks and droppings like burned off rivet heads and bolts . . . it was interesting."

Although Miller Park was built so the best baseball players in the world could compete against one another, the first battles the stadium hosted were between the equipment that was used to build it.

"It was a constant battle of other equipment," Todd said. "It was very hectic."

Todd had 10 spools of wire for the 1 1/2 inch mains that were to start in the middle of the field. In order to alert heavy equipment that may be in danger of crushing sprinkler heads, Todd put cones over them. Well guess what happened. First the snow buried the cones and the wire, then a crane drove over everything, crushing the cones and spools of wire.

"We got there and there was this tire mark, and 10 spools of wire were just crushed," he said. "They had to be cut off and replaced."

Looking Towards Opening Day

The irrigation installation crew had to battle workers and machinery throughout the duration of the job. The centerfield scoreboard which measures 76 feet by 32 feet was installed in August of 2000 and was assembled in six panels. The video replay screen which is 48 feet by 37 feet was installed in January of this year.

They got the irrigation system done even though portions of the field were not thawed, as a result there was some settling because there was some places where the ice wasn't melted out.

"The grounds crew did a great job," Todd said. "They stuck with it all the way from the spreading of sand to peeling back the sod to repair it when it settled."

The sod is bluegrass grown in Evergreen Farms in Peotone, Ill. It is a hybrid of three types of Kentucky bluegrass: America, Blacksburg and Midnight.

For a week after the sod was laid, the field was still frozen. The irrigation system was running during the day at this time and at night it was winterized because the pipes were in the frozen sub-grade.

As opening day approached, there were still a few things to be taken care of.

The first exhibition game played at Miller Park was on March 30 against the Chicago White Sox. The stadium was packed to watch the game and to watch as the retractable roof, powered by a 60-horsepower engine completed its first journey around a semi-circular track in front of a full house.

While the fans in the stands and the players on the field watched what was going on above them, Todd was out on the field with an air compressor blowing out the sprinkler system.

One of the final alterations made to the system was the removal of a couple of heads that watered the skinned infield. The grounds crew added coaches boxes on the first and third base side of the field requiring the heads to be capped off.

The first official game at Miller Park took place on April 6. President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch in front of a sellout crowd of 42,024. Brewers pitcher Jeff D'Amico fired a strike to Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin at 7:17 p.m. and the Brewers new home was open.

The Brewers defeated the Reds 5-4 for their first win at Miller Park.

So, after dodging burning rivets, battling frozen sub-grade, and dealing with the frustration of crushed materials the new park and the new irrigation system became a reality.

"All in all it's worked out great," Todd said.