IRRIGATION
There is nothing clean about installing a new irrigation system. We are making great time now that we are beyond the 10th hole. In fact, today alone, we finished installing mainline on the 11th hole.
After the ditch is dug, the pipe and wire are placed in the hole and then covered back up with soil. The soil is filled back in the ditch, 10" at a time, where it is compacted with a plate tamp to insure none of our ditches settle down the road. This is a critical detail when installing new irrigation systems.
#15 POND
Above, the new stand pipe and culvert are ready to go in the 12' deep ditch (below). The orange cap is the new valve that will allow us the ability to drain the pond without removing or damaging the stand pipe. This stand pipe is about 8' tall. Once it is installed in place, approximately one cubic yard of concrete is pumped into the base of the pipe, to keep it in place and prevent it from "floating."
Above you can see this black portion of material in the cross section of the ditch on #15. Upon closer inspection, this is the remnants of a burn pile from a long, long time ago! It was probably the ashes left from a fire where plant material was burned during the construction of that pond in the 1940's or 1950's. That is my estimation on when that pond was initially built. Another interesting bit of knowledge: The gentleman on the excavator estimates that there is still 6 feet of sediment in the lower end of the pond! This year, I was only advised to dredge the upper end of the pond, which is solid rock about 2-3 feet down. It's hard to believe that pond captured that much sediment.
Above, you get a good idea what the condition of the existing pipe in #15 pond was like. This pipe is literally disintegrating in front of us.
#8 DRAINAGE
Drainage on #8 is progressing very nicely. The spoils from the ditches are being hauled to the back of #18 (see below) where we are leveling and re-sodding the bluegrass just before the south side entrance to the tunnel. This has turned out to be surprisingly good soil. I thought for sure this would be very rocky, if not solid rock, by the way ground water surfaces here during rainy periods.
Area behind 18 to be leveled, improved and re-sodded.
When we dug this ditch, we found this old terracotta drain tile system running parallel to our ditch. This is pretty cool for a number of reasons. The most intriguing is that it could be as old as the golf course itself. Before the days of perforated drain pipe, terracotta drain tile like this one, was the go-to material for improving drainage and water flow below the turf.
If the warm afternoons keep up, we will be forced to mow greens in another week.
OTHER PROJECTS
On #11, we are also doing some creek bank restoration work using boulders dug up from other projects on-site.