I recently had the opportunity to visit Kansas City again and review the use of trench drain at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs.  Earlier in the year, I visited Kaufman Stadium, the sister stadium and home of the Kansas City Royals.  At that time, we discussed slot drains and radius drains used to help evacuate surface water.  At Arrowhead Stadium, some of these same systems were used.  However, I saw greater variety of products and applications.  In addition, I was able to see some problems encountered with existing products.

To get a good idea of the breadth of products used at the stadium, I took an opportunity to get an “inside look” and go to a football game.  The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.  The Chiefs were using a substitute QB and had some offensive issues.  The Steelers had offensive issues of their own, just coming off a bye week and being a little rusty.  Both defenses played well leading to a low scoring game with a high turn-over.  In the end, Steelers outlasted the Chiefs in the 13-9 routing of the home team.

Arrowhead Stadium has recently gone through a remodeling, adding a new press area, a founder’s plaza, and a hall of fame.   I was impressed with the changes I saw, having been an employee of the Chiefs organization some 35 years earlier.   Upon entering the stadium, I headed down to the stairs on my way to the field.  At the base of the stairs, I noted Zurn Stainless steel perforated grating used in a Z886 channel.  It was fitting that the drain was at the base of the stairs, which would be a collecting point for the rain and melting snow tracked into the stadium from the barrage of pedestrian traffic.

I also want to point out that due to the high pedestrian traffic at sports venues, drain grating is most always heel-proof, or at least ADA.  That is to say, the open area which makes up the holes of the grate is less than 3/8″ in width.  Also, you will see an effort by the architect to specify a slip resistant surface on the grating.  In the case of the Zurn Grate, the perforations included some raised dimples which made a gripping action for the soles of a wet shoe.   The particular Zurn Grate style is the Z886-PSC.

Making my way to the field, I was able to inspect the field perimeter drain.  This drain runs around the field and about 10 feet from the wall stand.  This particular drain had galvanized steel perforated grating in meter lengths as is common with the European style products such as Polydrain, MEA or ACO drain.  All three of these channel systems are basically identical.  I suspect that this particular product was the PolyDrain system due to the lack of brand identification on the grating.  MEA and ACO drain tend to put identifying marks on their grates.

The evolution of sports broadcasting has had an effect on the trench drain of this stadium and, I suspect, other stadiums.  Originally when this drain was installed, I’m sure the designers envisioned that the loads seen by this grating would be football players, coaches, security personnel and maybe a golf cart of some sort.  Now-a-days, there is constant wheel loads from television camera mobile scaffolding going over the drain grates.  This causes the resultant bellying-out of the typically weak grating.  This is made evident in the photo above.  The groundskeeper of this field would be wise to replace these grates with an ADA cast iron grate or reinforced Perforated grating when they schedule the next maintenance on these drains.

The Founder’s plaza is a grand court at the business entrance and ticket booth at Arrowhead Stadium.  Here, they have a fountain, an ornate hardscape, and memorial paver stone courtyard which requires quite a bit of drainage.   Earlier in the year, I was called by an engineer from a local contracting company, George Shaw Construction, to discuss the replacement of grates that were failing at the Founder’s Plaza.  At the time, the engineer was considering a stone based, reinforced polymer concrete grating called Jonite.  This product proved to be too costly for the Chiefs organization, who decided to live with the broken grates – at least for the time being.

Upon arrival to the Founder’s Plaza, I quickly located the problem trench grating (See below).  I had seen this product earlier in the year in the general admission section of the adjoining baseball stadium, Kaufman Stadium.  When I first viewed this grate, I suspected it was custom because I saw no markings.  But here at Arrowhead Stadium, I was able to pick the grate up and view it in detail.  The grate was an 8″ wide by 24” long galvanized cast iron product made by a boutique foundry out of California named Ironsmith.   The grating pattern, Olympian (9045-8), is meant for pedestrian loads only.

After examination of a broken grate, it was clear to see the root of the failure.  The recess of the trench which held the grate was designed to be one inch deep.  The Ironsmith grate showed a one inch thickness, required to bring the grate flush with the adjacent hardscape.  The grating design incorporated 1/4″ thick corner and edge pads (sometimes called pedestals) which are used to stabilize the grate within the track and prevent rocking.  The actual rail body of the grate was only 3/4 inch thick.  The grate cross bars, attached to the edge rails, are around 3/8” thick.  The pedestals are intended to be ground, if needed, to help facilitate stability.  In this case, however, the pedestals acted as suspension points along the weakest axis of the grate.  At first glance, one would think the strength of the grate would be a function of the multiple 1 inch thick cast iron support member spanning the 8″ dimension.  In fact, the Ironsmith Olympian design is only as strong as the two 3/4″ edge rails that spans 12 inches between any two adjacent pedestals.  This is a weak grate design and can be easily fail under light loads.  No wonder so many of these grates were found broken.

Elsewhere in this same plaza, other types of trench drains were used.  Around the fountain, designers used a trench drain with a slot drain extension rather than a standard grate.  These drain sections were 40 inches in length (one meter), typical of European style products such as MEA and ACO drain.  Both of these manufacturers have a galvanized steel slot extension which is used in place of a grate.  This allows the water to be drained into a 3/8” wide continuous slot that is well hidden from view.   The slots are ADA compliant, as well, but watch out for cigarette butts clogging the slots!!!  They only drain as well as they are cleaned.

One last example of trench drainage is along a sidewalk curb.  This particular product is manufactured by ACO drain as shown by the brand mark.  The grate, Type 494, is plastic and ADA compliant.  It is resting in their K100S channel which is made of polymer concrete and utilizing a galvanized steel edging.  This pre-sloped system is made in the European tradition and is pretty much identical to MEA’s Z1000 channel.

Arrowhead stadium displayed a nice assortment of trench drain products.  At this venue, the exposed grating was heel-proof and ADA compliant due to the high volume of pedestrian traffic.  Product manufacturers included Zurn, ACO, Ironsmith and possibly Polydrain.  I was able to view design flaws of a product made by Ironsmith and see some significant deformation of grating that was under-rated for the application.

If you would like to discuss any of the above products, contact us at Trench Drain Systems (TDS).  We specialize in all aspects of trench drains, channel drains and trench grating products.  Call us toll-free 866-570-2333 to speak to one of our sales specialists.  Or, visit our website www.trenchdrain.biz.

If you discuss catch basins with an excavating contractor, they immediately think about large pre-cast concrete storm water drainage structures that are part of municipal, state or federal drainage systems. These basins commonly have an interior dimension of 2’ x 4’ or larger and are made of 8” thick reinforced concrete.
A landscaping contractor’s perspective on catch basins will be different. Typically, the largest catch basin used in a landscaping drainage system is 2’ x 2’. Precast concrete basins are available in this size, but they are referred to as 2’ x 2’ yard basins. 

Pre-Cast Concrete Catch Basin – The first product to discuss is the traditional pre-cast concrete yard basin. These products are made in a concrete shape factory using a metal form. The wall will generally contain some amount of mesh reinforcing. There may be indentations in the walls (known as knock-outs) that will make it easy for a contractor to remove a section of the wall and install a drainage pipe. Usually, the largest pipe that can fit into this basin is a 15” diameter concrete pipe. These basins can be made with pre-existing drainage pipe holes to your specification. Grating options are traditionally limited to heavy duty cast iron slotted or bar grating. Though this type of basin is relatively inexpensive, they require a backhoe or small crane to set them into place. Your local pre-cast concrete company may have these in stock, but you will need some serious construction equipment to move and place it.

 

Attaching PVC piping to polymer concrete catch basins can be a little trickier especially since it is ideal to avoid using concrete when installing this catch basin. However, you may find it is necessary to use concrete to help seal the pipe in the basin wall or maybe when forming a small apron around the grating to help direct water into the basin. And speaking of grating, polymer concrete catch basins may have some good residential options, but they tend to me more industrial in nature.
 

Plastic Catch Basins – The final basin type I am going to discuss is the plastic catch basin. There are a number of manufacturers are in the marketplace that promote plastic catch basins. I’m most familiar with products by National Diversified Systems (NDS). These products range in size from 24” x 24” to 9” x 9”. The larger NDS basins are made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) while the smaller basins are made from PVC.

Extensions are available for adjusting the depth of the basin. Piping is connected to the basin with an adapter fitting and PVC glue can be used to secure the pipe and fitting, though it is not necessary.

Grating options are better as you decrease the size of the basin. For instance, the large 24” x 24” NDS catch basin has 5 grate options. On the other hand, NDS’ 12” x 12” basin has 15 options. Plastic grates in a variety of colors are common throughout the NDS basin product line. They also have cast iron and galvanized steel bar grating. Other manufacturers also have grating options for the NDS basins. Iron Age Designs is one such company. Below are four decorative cast iron grates made for the NDS 12” x 12” catch basin. Some of these patterns are also available in sizes that fit other NDS basins. 

As you can see from the examples I gave above, there are many options in large residential catch basins. I realize that the information given here may not answer all of your questions. To get more details on a product or advice on a catch basin application, send me an email at michael@trenchdrain.biz or call TrenchDrain.biz at 610-638-1221.