By Dave Belcher
Moapa Valley Progress
Driving by the Moapa Valley High School stadium might cause people to pause and take a second look at the track. The surface has gone from slate grey to an earthy red in color.
Last week United Sports Systems came to the Moapa Valley High School from Texas to resurface the track. The last time it was resurfaced was back in 2000.
The outdoor all-weather tracks have about a seven year life span and the Clark County School District used money from a previous bond to do the update. All high schools were evaluated and the worst of them are being replaced, resurfaced or repaired.
The grass to the north of the track is also being removed and replaced with chat so that the water, which use to drain onto the track from the slope on the north, will no longer reach the track.
The pole vault area is also having the grass removed to solve water issues.
This process of resurfacing the track and the additional landscaping is costing $220,000.
School officials had wanted a blue track. But they were informed that a blue track was $17,000 more. They were given the choice between red and black.
There has been a lot of frustration over this red track and no clear understanding of why a red track and a blue track has such a large price difference. Workers for the contractor didn’t know the answer to that question either. The crews have moved on to Virgin Valley this week to resurface the Dawg pound.
The resurfacing process called for the cleaning and sweeping of the old track to remove all loose rubber, dirt and sand. Several places along the track had bubbles under it so a binding agent was placed under the pad in these cases or were cut out to be replaced by new material. A binding agent was sprayed over the track then red rubber pellets were dumped into a hopper and was mixed with the binder. The material comes out of the hopper pink. The contents are poured into a trailer which is pulled by a four-wheeler around the track and dumped where the crew rakes it out and a finisher levels and flattens it out.
Two layers of the rubber are applied this way. A topcoat seal sprayed over six layers seals the rubber and coating to connect it to the track making a firm surface to run on.
High school officials ask members of the community wishing to use the track to run on the outer four lanes which are least used.
Also please leave dogs out of the complex. There will be seven teams playing on the field including the Jr High and Elementary teams. We don’t play football in your yard so please don’t walk your dog on our fields!
