Ok guys, first let me acknowledge that I am way out of my area of expertise here. My nephew has asked me to provide grading for a new softball field to be built on his churches property. The church will be the owner. I own a NH L190 skid steer with a 6 way dozer blade and a dirt bucket among other attachments. To date I have pushed around some rocks and dirt, trees and other trash, filled in holes and generally leveled small patches of land by eye. I have never attempted to bring a patch of ground to a specified level with specified slopes. At this point the only information I have about the site is that it is relatively flat, there is some brush on it and it is 250 miles from home. Now I know that any sane person would recommend that you hire a professional, experienced contractor that has the right equipment to do this job. And I intend to recommend that. In all good conscience I must. That said, I know that they will not do that. They are trying to get out as cheap as they can. After they reject my recommendation to hire a competent contractor, I am inclined to take on the job for expenses and some experience. My question is, how do I begin? What are the steps to take a rough patch of ground to rough grade and then to finish grade for an athletic field? I have been reading all I can get my hands on about softball/baseball field layout and grade specifications, doing an initial survey, and using grade stakes to guide me while I cut and fill. I am also intrigued with using a laser grading system to produce the final grade. I watched this being done on a baseball field a few years ago and I have watched numerous videos about the process (so I guess that makes me a graduate of Youtube University). My day job is lighting athletic fields, so I have been around them and the people that operate and maintain them for about 15 years or so. Most of my skid loader work has been in support of my sports lighting business. That and brush clearing and I have pushed a few ranch roads with it. Ok, let the flames begin, Tim
First off, I've never done a sofeball or baseball field, but I have done some grading. Your 190 isnt going to cut it,way too much dirt. Run the numbers if you have to cut 12" off one side and place it on the other side of the field. I'd be finding a 10 - 20 ton dozer with a 6 way blade and laser guidance. I own a gehl ctl 70, and there is no way I'd appempt to make a softball field with it, thats why I own a dozer. By chance if you ask real politely, you might be able to rent a dozer and guidance system from a dealer or rental yard. Did you shoot the site and determine how much cut and fill you will have to do?
I think some of the question is what are the soil conditions and is it more practical to bring in fill and top or is whats there suitable? rough gradeing with a laser or transit once its clear will give you a better idea. also knowing up front what they expect should also be known. You dont want to sign on and then be told finish grade must be +~- 1/4" !
I agree with stump jumper in that there is no way I would do this without laser guidance. Stakes & strings not gonna work here. At one time I looked at some grading for baseball fields and it seems that the diamond should be done with a cone laser. The rest you could get with a single plane or dual plane. A flat laser wont work either. You will need some slope for drainage. You are talking about 2 acres for an average sized field area. No offense but this seems like a huge step up from what you have done to date, not saying you can't do it, just know your limitations. And in your opening sentance it seems you do. Good luck
CAT rental in Utah rents or demos dual slope laser setups or at least they used to perhaps others do as well. However going from zero experience to a baseball field is running before learning to walk but with some help from the rental store its not impossible. Hopefully you have a well laid out set of plans (which I doubt you will if they are trying to save money), with a good set of plans it may not be that difficult. Much will depend on how they spec the finish product. What really sucks is that it is 250 miles from home, that makes a learning experience (read not making any money) even harder to swallow but it might open other doors in the end.
I have not seen the field yet except from a Google Earth view. The field (I am assuming) is a small softball field probably 200' from home plate to the center field fence. Having not seen it in person, I assume that the field should be roughly laid out on the site and then a topo survey conducted to see where areas should be cut down and where they should be filled. Looks to me like this needs to be done prior to any negotiations so I will have some idea how much dirt will have to be moved and how much I will have to haul in. Stumpjumper, you could be right. I won't know how much leveling will need to be done until it's surveyed. I have had a little experience running a 450 case with a 6 way blade, would this be big enough? Just looked at the specs, looks like the 450 may be a little light in the shorts. Xc, I am somewhat familiar with the soil conditions in that area from having to drill pier holes to 10' depth. It is not easy. Lots of cliche. Is it feasible to use a flat laser to bring the site to level and then bring in fill (top soil) to contour the field to final grade? I have been reading about using grade stakes with blue tops on them to set the final grade. Is this a viable alternative to the fancy slope laser grading system? If so would you set grade stakes for the rough grading and then reset them for the final fill? I read a recommendation where you survey the baseball field on a 50' grid plus any prominent features such as the pitchers mound, home plate and the bases. Is a 50' grid of grade stakes dense enough for this kind of work? The slope in the infield will be .5% - 1% from the pitchers mound. The slope in the outfield will be 1.25% - 1.75%. I realize that I have asked a lot of newbie questions. While I am still going to refer these folks to someone who knows what they are doing, my curiosity is up. So if you will indulge my questions, I will be very appreciative. Tim
KSSS, This project is near San Antonio Tx. It is probable that if the laser equipment is available for rent in Utah, it may be available in San Antonio also. Thanks, I wasn't sure that the appropriate equipment would be available for rent. Tim
What I found shows a woman softball has a 220' fence and a mens 250'. Here is how i'd do it if it was a standard grading job. First you need to set up your silt fense, then clear your brush and vegitation, root rake brushy areas. Next strip your topsopil off, push that somewheres where you can get behind it and push it back later. Next, move your fill material, compacting in lifts as necessary. This step is where the guidance starts to come into play, but isnt completely necessary usually 1" is close enough tollerance on sub grade. Once you achieve sub grade, usually 6" under finish grade the picky work starts. Finish grade, with sports fields, plus or minus 1/4" is kinda loose tollerances. This is where the gps is a life saver, especially if its the automated machine controll stuff, just let the dozer run, and grade is done. You may be expected to prep and seed, or they may go for placed sod. All in all it isn't a one day project. All that being said we are beating a dead horse untill the survey is done and you see what for cut & fill your workin with.
Stumpjumper, I suspect that the soil that is there is not suitable for growing sod. I have seen it and it will hardly support scrub brush. The material that is recommended for the root zone on a baseball/softball field is a sandy loam with 50% sand, 25% clay and 25% silt. This is special stuff, but only needs to be used in the last 3-4" of fill. Also the field must be at a higher elevation than the surrounding ground in order to promote good drainage. For these reasons, I suspect that much fill dirt will have to be brought in. You are quite correct, in that the first step is to get a survey done. Tim
I agree and then if you are going to use GPS, you will have to get someone to build the model to load into the machine.
All I know is that when ball fields go out for bids through our local Association of General Contractors, a person does not want to bid on them that is inexperienced or at least has GPS controlled equipment because of the very tight tolerances. Also, there is only one approved supplier of finish dirt for the infield in a 75 mile radius of here. Not sayin' it can't be done, just watch out for anything that could put you in default and make you liable. It's a different deal if it's a volunteer thing or tolerances aren't as tight as what I'm thinking.
Something that hasn't been mentioned is an underground drainage system which is the norm in my part of the world with our mostly clay soil.I 've done a few of them,nothing more elaborate than a simple 4'' multi criss cross ''french''[I hate that term,but it always seems to get the point across] drain leading out to daylite.We have to import that ballfield mix from New Jersey--pricey stuff for sure.
d9gdon, who is the supplier if infield dirt in the Central Texas area? I was installing lighting on three softball fields near Vernal Utah a few years ago. The owner had about 120 tons of infield dirt on site that he was going to spread on the three fields. My electrician decided that he needed some of that nice clean soft dirt to backfill some ditches he had cut . He got about 40 tons of it before I caught him. The replacement dirt had to be trucked in from Golden Colorado. That was damn expensive dirt as it had to be trucked over 300 miles. Man the owner was mad!! tuney, yeah if they have to add a drainage system that adds a whole other dimension to the project. Again, we won't know until a topo survey is done but since it will have to be built up some anyway maybe they will get lucky and be able to rely on natural drainage. cm1995 I am assuming that you are talking about a GPS/Laser system where the elevation of all the points on the field have to be programmed in. I have no experience with these, but I am very interested in them. I have read a little about them but the articles I have read give little technical information. It has been mostly sales literature. Not much help. Tim
Tim, Let me backtrack on some GC's to find out the name of that supplier for infield dirt. On a machine controlled GPS, the model builder inputs the plans into the GPS system whether it's Trimble, Topcon, or Leica so that the job actually shows up on your screen just like the plans. You talk about a cakewalk now, it's awesome. The machine takes over on automatic and you just drive around. It controls the blade according to the plans exactly. Nothing that a spare $80,000 won't fix. I can see where it will pay for itself. You can finish blade in third gear with it.