Construction Surveying projects come in all shapes and sizes. But few are as demanding as the project completed by Maxwell Engineering for the Auburn University Track & Field Facility, the Hutsell-Rosen Track.

Conner Brothers Construction Co., the general contractor on Phase II of the new $5.5-million facility, hired Pro17 Engineering to complete all construction staking for drainage structures, track lighting, grandstand seats, track fine grading, horizontal and vertical project control and blue-topping for four different subcontractors. The work involved working to horizontal and vertical tolerances closer than the width of a surveying tack.

J. Keith Maxwell, the president and CEO of Pro17 Engineering, notes that his company specializes in using high tech surveying equipment to complete jobs requiring closer than normal tolerances. This job’s specifications called for one of the tightest tolerances in the world. The track, and all it’s adjacent ancillary field event venues, was to be certified to International, Olympic and NCAA standards. The 400-meter track, however, is the star of the show. Because of the critical close tolerances demanded by the Monaco-based certifying body, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), all of the earth, stone and asphalt material were put in with high-tech laser assistance for accuracy. Paul B. Krebs & Associates, Inc. was the architect/engineer for Auburn University. Krebs worked in close conjunction with the Paige Design Group of Bahama, N.C., and the Charlotte Engineering Sports Group III, Inc of Port Charlotte, Fla.

Sunbelt Asphalt Surfaces was the grading and base contractor and completed the majority of paving on the new 400-meter track including final fine grading the earth subgrade, installation of an 8-inch course of crushed stone and two levels of hot mix asphalt using the laser assisted machine controls. Sunbelt specializes in the precision paving of running tracks and tennis courts. The wearing surface course was only allowed a 1/16-inch variation (0.005′) measured 3 meters in any direction. After this portion of the track work was finished, Sunbelt was required to flood it with water to verify that they had built in the correct drainage slopes and that were are no deep birdbaths, deeper than 3/32-inch or the thickness of a nickel.

Aside from the project’s demanding technical specs, another challenge on this project was the weather. Conner Brothers, according to Superintendent Bart McManus, had to rework the earth subbase for the Auburn University running track on four different occasions during September and October because of the damage from three hurricanes and a severe cloud burst that dumped 5 inches of storm water on the track in only three hours. The rainwater damage was so severe that Conner’s crews actually had to remove the crushed stone subgrade and dry out, reprofile and recompact the earthwork under it that was already put down and compacted. All this rework, of course, delayed the project and required restaking the site each time.

The final construction stage of the track was a live rubber surface put down by Beynon Sports Surface in several courses totaling only 1/2-inch thick, an operation that takes at least 45 days and has a price tag of about three-quarters of a million dollars. The new top-notch facility with Beynon Sports Surface’s BSS 2000 track surface promises to be the best in the Southeastern Conference.

After all of this construction work was completed an as-built survey was completed and certification to IAAF standards, a long and arduous process in and of itself, was done by ME&LS. Being only the 3rd such certified track in the US the report was checked and re-checked by Beynon before being finally submitted to the certifying body.

The Auburn Tigers Track & Field team began competing at the newly named Hutsell-Rosen Track for the 2006 season.

Share this: