THE COOLEST GAME IN TEXAS

BY MCKENZIE NALLEY

A calm crowd is not why we go to baseball games. People who want peace and quiet can stay home with their big screens — you’re here for the roar of 40,000-plus fans screaming and cheering as they urge the Texas Rangers on to victory. But just because you’re not at home doesn’t mean you can’t be comfortable.

40,000-plus frenetic fans will create a fair amount of energy to be contained, so that’s why Manhattan Construction has brought the latest hightech mechanical systems to one of the biggest construction projects in sports. The sheer scale of the HVAC systems needed for a project like this is enormous, and the technology needed to coordinate it all smoothly and efficiently is cutting-edge.

Designing and installing mechanical systems for a sports arena is very different from doing so on a standard commercial construction project. And designing and installing mechanical systems in a sports arena the size of the new Globe Life Field is very much its own ballgame. Matt Johnson is a senior project manager at TD Industries (TD), a specialty contractor hired to install and help partially design the mechanical systems at the stadium. TD specializes in HVAC and plumbing, and it’s a veteran of the field, having worked previously on the AT&T Stadium in Arlington (the Cowboys), State Farm Stadium in Phoenix (the Cardinals), Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta (the Falcons) and the Rangers’ original Globe Life Park in the ‘90s.

According to Johnson, it’s the combination of scale and speed that makes a project like this stand out. “Essentially we had just 18 months to build 1.8 million square feet,” he said. “There’s 1.9 million pounds of sheet metal inside the Rangers Stadium, and all that has to be installed in 18 months.” From coordination and logistics, to technical challenges, to pure work hours, the challenges of such a project can be as enormous as the end result itself. At peak construction, installing the HVAC systems involved 376 people working 60-hour weeks.

Johnson also singled out the challenge of installing HVAC components in a structure with a retractable dome, especially one like this — 240,000 square feet that must be capable of creating a perfectly climate-controlled environment at a moment’s notice. Ductwork couldn’t be installed in the dome itself, because the dome needs to move. To circumvent the problem, TD created a membrane of structural steel modules that the ducts would hang from.

Another challenge brought on by the dome was working over such a vast, empty space. “When you’ve got 104-inch ductwork, you can essentially drive a Volkswagen Beetle through it,” he said. “And when it’s 230 feet above the playing surface, how do you get that in, how do you get that ductwork up onto a platform or in the structural steel, and how do you install that?” The answer was through the use of a quick deck: “[A quick deck is] a scaffold system that hangs off of the structural steel. It’s a movable platform … As that duct is being installed from south to north or north to south, that platform can then be moved as you work down, so you’re really never coming down off of the platform … It’s really like you’re standing on the ground, working [on] this duct 230 feet in the air.”

In addition to having made use of the latest and best technology for an efficient and lightning-fast construction, there are also a number of features that the finished stadium will employ to keep the mechanical systems running at top capacity. The stadium contains two 25,000-gallon chilled water storage tanks so that in the event of a power outage or failure the stadium’s system can continue to keep the venue cool.

To tackle issues of efficiency, an ever-present danger in projects with such a short timeline, Manhattan Construction and TD coordinated the space using BIM, building information modeling. BIM is the use of technology to create digital models for a construction project. Through its virtual design construction software, TD is able to create a full, 3D model of the stadium. “Then we can turn that over to our construction team,” Johnson said, “and they can go install that in the field, whether it’s through the 3D model, or actual drawings that the guys can pull up on their iPads.”

The mechanical systems also have the equivalent of a brain and nervous system to keep the entire facility running at its most efficient. Using utiliVisor’s data monitoring service, TD can watch mechanical system trends in the building, and send alerts when the systems aren’t being used optimally — if too many chillers are running or are running faster than necessary. That, along with a building automation system with graphical displays, allows the venue to save on energy usage and prevent wear on the system.

Bringing the best, in terms of fan experience and stadium quality, are core company principles for Manhattan Construction and TD, and the mechanical systems present in the new Globe Life Field are evidence of that. Millions of pounds of ductwork, a high-tech HVAC system, tens of thousands of gallons in millions of feet of piping: It all adds up to keep those 40,000-plus shouting fans having the best experience possible, which is undeniably the coolest game in Texas.