Town of Silver City, NM:
Scott Park Site Development

The Town of Silver City hired Smith through the Town on-call contract to provide design and construction phase services for improvements to the existing Scott Park Baseball Complex. Scott Park is located on top of a decommissioned landfill site that had been closed for approximately 25 years. The park consisted of existing ball fields, only one of which had grass. The other fields were dirt and had been abandoned. The existing condition of the facility allowed to infiltrate the landfill creating a build up of methane gases. The proposed project consisted of the design of four additional fields of various sizes that were also designed to accommodate a soccer field. Since the fields were to be constructed above the landfill, the Town requested the use of artificial turf to avoid watering, and reduce maintenance. Design considerations had to be made because minimal site disturbance was required to maintain the stability of the landfill cap. The synthetic turf fields were designed to “float” on top of the landfill cap. Stormwater runoff was collected via a subsurface system to prevent water infiltration into the landfill debris layers. Field lighting towers had to be designed to not puncture the final landfill cap.

Due to funding constraints, the fields were constructed in phases. The first phase included the construction of the four baseball fields (in two levels), back stops, fences and dugouts. Roads and parking areas were graded in as well. The second phase included retaining walls between the two levels. A third phase added lighting and netting on the fields. Sidewalks were built in the fourth phase. The fifth and final phase will add a concession building.