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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

We Have Sod, Ladies And Gents


GoPack.com



Some interesting tidbits from the story by Tim Peeler:
In all, some 240 rolls of sod will be used to cover the 68,400 square feet of Wayne Day Field. The field will also have a synthetic buffer around the playing surface, 10 feet away from the wall surrounding the field on the sidelines and five feet away from the wall everywhere else.

The project was originally budgeted for $1 million, but through due digilence and cost-cutting measures, will cost about $750,000.
Nice! Saving a cool quarter-mil these days is huge.
Another part of the project was to replace the in-ground sprinkler system that kept the old field watered with six high-pressure water guns that can be aimed from the sidelines and corners of the end zone to water the field. The guns shoot water up to 200 feet each at a rate of 250 gallons per minute.

“The biggest headache we had every week before a game was making sure none of those sprinkler heads were sticking up or sunk down or tilted in any way so that no one could catch a cleat on them as they ran down the field,” [Ray] Brincefield said. “Now, we don’t have to worry about that.”
Scary to think that one of our players (or one from the opposition) could've suffered a Mickey Mantle-type injury that could've potentially ended their football career.

2 comments:

  1. Was the field turf before? I could've sworn y'all played on grass when GT played on a ton of grassy slush in '06.

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  2. It's always been grass, but the field has always had a pronounced crown since Carter Finely's construction in '65. They've completely leveled the field now, which involved tearing out all the previous sod, grading the field flat and then re-sodding it (which is currently underway).

    It's really an amazing undertaking, all the more amazing that it came in 25% under budget. It'll be a PGA-grade field (imagine playing football on the green at Pinehurst...scratch that, there are no flat greens at Pinehurst). It'll drain water at an amazing rate, so hopefully no more "slush" games from here on out.

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