Municipal Stadium

By Brad Iseneker, Manager Grounds Maintenance for the City of Daytona Beach Florida

The main field of the project was stripped of sod and replaced with artifical turf. The sod was transported and used to rehabilitate the other fields in the project. photos courtesy of Brad Iseneker, Manager Grounds Maintenance for the City of Daytona Beach, Florida

Municipal Stadium is the home field of two local high schools, as well as Bethune-Cookman University. In addition to allowing for more football games to be played at the 10,000-seat stadium, the artificial turf will provide a stable surface for other sports. The two adjacent baseball fields received a total makeover courtesy of landscape contractor, laserturf. Other ongoing stadium renovations included the structural reinforcement of the grandstands, a new roof on the press box, refurbished locker rooms, modernization of the elevator, wireless connectivity in the press box and upgraded communications technology offering the ability for coaches in the box to communicate to personnel on the field.

There had been an ongoing drainage problem at the complex housing Municipal Stadium and two adjacent baseball fields, so an overhaul of the drainage systems at the entire complex was done. Fill dirt was brought in for the larger field and the soil was tested to see where the fill might be lacking. A new irrigation system was installed on the larger field (pictured). Once that was completed the contractor corrected the soil per the tests that were taken. Laserturf installed the trench for the perimeter drain. There is an irrigation system used for this field but not for typical purposes. It is a perimeter system with a long throw, designed to wet the field for a short amount of time to cool the field during the summer months. At the baseball fields, the contractor dug new swales and re-built old swales. Once this was completed the two fields were stripped in house. All of the sprinkler heads on the smaller field were replaced.

Recycling The Old Turf

As part of the FieldTurf installation at Municipal Stadium, it was decided that the natural grass turf that would be otherwise destroyed could be utilized to renovate the little league fields at Bethune Point. As part of this process the two small fields were sprayed with a non-selective weed killer a month before the project was to begin.

Once this project was completed the decision was made to renovate the two larger baseball fields at Bethune Point. Also at that time it was decided to move the larger field home plate back 10 feet and move the outfield fence in as well. A new 4-foot fence was installed behind home plate and in front of the dugouts. New netting followed.

 


On the main field, the flat drainpipe was placed and spaced on the geotextile fabric.

Following the initial grading on the main field, the contractor brought in dump trucks and covered the field six inches deep with more than 100,000 square feet of washed rock #89 for under-drainage.

Laser-Grading

The laser-grading contractor relocated the bigger field back 10 feet and did the grading of both fields. The fields were fumigated after that was completed.

Two weeks after the fumigation, the sod installation started and both fields were completed within two weeks. A starter fertilizer was put down. The contractor did the final laser grading of the skinned areas.

Once the project at Municipal Stadium was ready to proceed, the contractor cleared nearly two acres of turf with a sod cutter, loaded the material onto pallets and trucked to Bethune Point for installation. This process took five days. After the turf was down, a starter fertilizer was spread and the turf started rooting as the area approached growing season.

For grass removal, four workers used turf cutters to remove the turf. Five workers performed the stone and drainage prep, and eight workers installed the turf. The sod and sand was removed and taken down about 7 inches deep and leveled. The black is a geotextile fabric that is placed over the compacted sand - it looks about 1/3 of the way completed.

Preparing The Soil

A soil amendment was added to both infield-skinned areas to help with moisture control. Both fields were top-dressed after the contractor finished. The fields were recently over-seeded and top-dressed. Bullpens are being built on both fields and new plates, bases and 4-sided rubbers are being added.

Crews installed the artificial turf by rolling out the turf; the 15-foot wide rolls are side-sewn. It was not compacted, other than the small roller flattening it out. The infill was installed later, the infield weighs 9.2 pounds per square foot; it's this weight that holds the turf in place - along with the sewn seams.

Installation crews laid down 105,00 square feet of the artificial turf material. They used large rollers, commercial sewing machines and carpet adhesive heaters. Work was completed in 30 days using 15 workers.

Installing The Artificial FieldTurf

Fieldturf was both the artificial grass manufacturer as well as the filed installer on this project. The first thing the company did was to remove the sod using turf cutters. For grass removal, they used backhoes, a bulldozer and Bobcats. The sod and sand was ?EUR??,,????'?????<
On top of that, the installer poured in and leveled six inches of #57 stone topped by #89 stone and then some fine aggregates. For stone and drainage prep. Several hundred trucks full of stone were brought in and then packed using a bulldozer and rollers.

Crews dug in and installed drainage pipes across the field at 25-foot increments and at the perimeter of the field, imbedded in the stone. The stone is compacted to 95-percent proctor. For turf install, the company employed utility trucks, forklift, and other miscellaneous tools. The turf is installed atop the stone base. The grass removal took two weeks, the stone and drainage also took two weeks and the turf installation took three weeks.

The table shows the difference between maintaining grass fields, as opposed to an artificial turf fields.

Total Workforce