Leechburg Area contracts for $1M turf field, track at Veterans stadium

The Leechburg Area School Board has awarded a contract to add artificial turf to Leechburg’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The district will pay South Carolina-based Sprinturf roughly $1 million to install the turf and add a track one-eighth of a mile long.

Business Manager Brad Walker said the district obtained a proposal from Sprinturf through the state CoStars buying cooperative after the board rejected two previous rounds of bids that came in over budget. The CoStars proposal was done in conjunction with Monroeville-based Axis Architecture, which is designing and overseeing the project.

The board also approved paying Axis Architecture and contractors roughly $109,000 to renovate the existing locker rooms, press box and bleachers, Walker said. That work began in December.

Walker couldn’t say when work on the turf field and track are expected to begin because of uncertainties due to the covid-19 pandemic.

School board President Neill Brady said the district has addressed concerns raised by Leechburg Council about potential flooding in the neighborhood as a result of the project.

The borough owns the property where the field and adjoining practice field are located, between Veterans and Wesley avenues. The school district has a 99-year lease with the borough.

Brady said the drainage system will be connected to the borough’s storm sewer system in two places to help alleviate water runoff. The idea came from a conversation between Project Manager Al Winkler of J.R. Gales and Associates and borough Engineer Shane Michael of Senate Engineering.

Brady said Armstrong County officials want the two areas of drainage rather than one.

The drainage system will consist of gravel beneath the field and a series of drainage pipes underneath the field and the track. Some water will be absorbed into the ground. The rest will go into the storm sewer system.

One of those drainage points will be a pipe that runs under Veterans Avenue and into a drainage swale. The other will be a pipe that will run along Wesley Avenue behind the concession building into a manhole on Logan Avenue, said Craig Collins of Axis Architecture.

Another concern was the potential size of the track. Some school board members had advocated building a bigger track suitable for hosting competition track meets, but in order to do that, the district would have had to renegotiate its lease with the borough. School directors ultimately picked a smaller track.

“We decided to go with the eighth of a (mile), which is the indoor regulation size,” Brady said.