Mount Vernon High School/Cornell College Softball Field

Hall & Hall Engineers (HHE) was engaged to complete the site design for the reconstruction (and conversion to artificial turf) of the existing softball field located on the Mount Vernon Community School District’s Campus. As it often happens, this ballfield started as a practice field and was positioned within a low-lying area of campus not suitable for other uses. As time progressed this field eventually became the official field for the district’s high school use. Prior to the reconstruction, off-site drainage (16 acres+/-) would surface flow across the outfield in larger rain events. With the proposed playing surface being converted to artificial turf, it was critical to eliminate any overland drainage across the artificial turf since flowing or standing water will cause the rubber pellets to float and be redistributed randomly throughout the field or off-site downstream, leading to costly maintenance. To eliminate this issue, the north edge of the field was raised and a small berm was created along the east side of the outfield fence to direct drainage to an overflow route provided around the north side of the proposed field to keep off-site overland drainage off the field to eliminate field deterioration and maintenance.  The project also includes sunken dugouts which improves spectator viewing.      

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