Pump house repair, again.

Last week we discovered a leak just outside our pump house, to our surprise it was more than just a leak.  Our pump house has a steel pipe that comes out of the pump, angels down, and attaches to a 12" PVC mainline for the irrigation system (Z pipe).  When we dug up the junction between the steel and the PVC we found a hole lot of corrosion.  So much corrosion that we were able to easily stick a screwdriver into the steel pipe.  We are lucky that Landscapes Unlimited, the company that owns the Broadlands, is one of the best irrigation companies in the business, and that they were working in town at Columbine Country Club.  LUI came up and made our pump house repair look very easy, even though it was a very big job.

screwdriver in 1/4" thick 12" steel pipe

Once we were able to get the steel pipe out of the ground we found a couple of holes, and multiple areas that were very close to becoming holes.

hole in steel Z pipe

pitting in Z pipe

grove in pipe

LUI decided to replace the entire steel pipe with a section of HDPE(high-density polyethylene) pipe.  HDPE pipe is beginning to replace PVC in the irrigation world due to its versatility, strength, and ease of use. 

New HDPE pipe installed

view of flange on new HDPE pipe

HDPE pipe running out of pump house into thrust block

 We were able to pressure up the pump house yesterday morning and begin to water the course again.  I would like to thank everyone involved from Landscapes Unlimited and my crew for working together and making our 'major' problem look like a small problem.

Drainage project

3 fairway has been our most challenging fairway since the golf course opened 13 years ago.  With very high sodium and bicarbonate levels, along with the heavy clay soils is has been very difficult to get a good stand of grass in some areas of the fairway.  While we have been able to make progress on these areas over the past few years, the thin turf in the fairway is still not up to our standards.  So the next step in trying to improve these areas is to add drainage.  This drainage is being installed to try and intercept ground water, allowing the surface to drain better, which will allow us to flush more sodium from the surface and giving us better growing conditions.

While adding drainage seems simple it is a very labor intensive job.  We first come in with a trencher and create a trench about 5" wide and 12" deep.  We then come back in and remove all the loose soil from inside the trench and on the surface.  The next step is to add 4" slotted drain pipe and fill the trench with pea gravel to add in collecting more water.  We will cap the drain lines with sand. 
There will be 800 feet of drainage installed on 3 fairway, 100 feet installed on 7 fairway, and another 150 feet installed on 15 fairway.