Posted on March 25, 2009 by abcnewspapers
by Eric Hagen
Staff writer
A handful of Mickman Brothers employees will be installing the
irrigation system at the new Minnesota Twins ballpark this summer.
Around the time the 2008 major league baseball season started, Georgia-based Fields, Inc. informed the Ham Lake company that it won the irrigation bid. The contract amount is presently $59,980, according to Jeff Sutter, project manager for the Target Field irrigation project.
Irrigating athletic fields is nothing new for Mickman Brothers. The company has worked on irrigation systems for residential and commercial properties and athletic fields for over 30 years.
Sutter has 25 years of experience with Mickman Brothers. Mike Kaupp, the superintendent for the Target Field project that will include three other Mickman Brothers workers, has worked for Mickman Brothers for 15 years.
Sutter said Mickman Brothers has installed irrigation systems for Eagan High School, Rogers High School, the Anoka-Hennepin School District and the Elk River School District. It worked on the first phase of the National Sports Center project in Blaine, installing irrigation systems for the stadium and some of the surrounding soccer fields.
“It’s really an honor,” Sutter said of working on Target Field, which is set to open for the 2010 baseball season.
“We always told ourselves it’s one baseball field,” Sutter said. “It’s not as large of a project, but it is a major league baseball field. It’s about as high of a profile project as you can have.”
Trenches will not be dug for the irrigation pipes, Sutter said. Instead, the pipes will be placed on a sub-grade, 10-inches of soil will be placed on top of this and then the grass for the field, which was grown off-site last summer, will be placed on top of the soil.
A heating system to keep the roots growing at an optimal rate before next winter and a drainage system will be installed in coordination with the irrigation system, Sutter said.
There will be no pressurized pipes under the field because of the way the irrigation system is designed, Sutter said.
Typically control valves are buried in the field in valve boxes. At Target Field, the control valves will be located within an irrigation room inside the stadium. Servicing the valves will be much easier because they will not be buried, Sutter said.
A technology called smart irrigation controllers can measure rain, high winds and low temperatures to determine when a field or yard needs to be irrigated. This encourages water conservation because people are not always around to monitor their sprinklers or they may under-water or over-water their grass.
“It’s the future of irrigation,” Sutter said.
Smart irrigation controllers technology has been around for many years, but the expense was high enough that initially it was found on larger projects such as golf courses. It has become more common for housing projects, city parks and businesses because it is more affordable than it was in the past, Sutter said.
Target Field’s irrigation system will not include this technology, however, because a groundskeeper will be responsible for monitoring the irrigation system, Sutter said.
Copyright 2009 ABC Newspapers
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