7/21 Update

We have had no major rain events in almost two weeks so progress on the course has been substantial. Of the 21 greens under construction, 13 have all their drain tile, gravel and green mix in place. The irrigation installation is proceeding at a rapid pace, averaging 2-3 days per hole. This process includes pulling the lateral PVC lines and control wires, installing swing joints and irrigation heads and wiring satellite controllers. Installation of the irrigation pond liner continues on hold as Duininck continues de-watering of the basin. 

The following series of photos show the construction of our pumphouse located next to the irrigation pond on the 12th hole. The building was constructed around our new Flowtronics pump station.

The concrete pad with the wet well covered for safety.

The pump station is delivered to the site and...

carefully set in place.

The block is stacked in preparation for wall construction.

The walls are finished.

The roof trusses are in place.

Xcel showed up to run power to the pumphouse from a power pole along Highway 61

The finished product.

Green mix being spread out over the gravel layer on the first green.

Trucks dump the mix on the edge of the green

A small dozer pushes the mix from that point out onto the green, always working on 12+ inches of mix so as not to disturb the gravel layer below.

The black material surrounding the green cavity is a plastic anti-wicking barrier. It is placed between the green mix and the surrounding soil to prevent the native soil from sucking moisture out of the green mix, resulting in dry spots on the edges of the greens.

The second green cavity full of mix. The extra material in the pile will be used to account for the settling that will occur as the mix is worked and compacted prior to final grade.

Mix on seven green spread by a skid steer.

A worker uses a compacting machine to settle the mix along the margin of the green. The area where the soil meets the mix will be worked thoroughly to ensure no future settling occurs.

Drainage lines on sixteen green are laid out and trenching begins.

Topsoil is spread on the 14th hole - view is from the 16th hole.

"Topsoiling" is complete on the 14th and 15th holes.



The centerline bunker on the second hole with topsoil. The view is from the tee.

A new bunker being dug into the hillside of the 16th fairway.

The seventh hole tee complex nearing completion.

A vibratory plow used to install the 2" PVC lateral irrigation lines. The pipe is attached to the cylindrical fitting shown hanging behind the plow blade and is pulled through the ground at a two foot depth.

Lateral irrigation line installation on the third hole.

An irrigation head staking crew at work. Spacing between irrigation heads is critical for maximum performance so all head locations are measured in the field. The individual in blue is from our irrigation design firm and he is overseeing the operation.

The control wires for the irrigation heads are conveniently laid out in one pass using a wire cart.

The vibratory pipe puller is shown here in action. The bundle of control wires is fed from above and buried on top the pipe in the ground.

Irrigation installation on the second hole.

Wire cart in action.

Irrigation installation on the 17th hole.

The Duininck irrigation superintendent flushing a pipe prior to head installation. It is important that all dirt and foreign material is flushed from the lines or the irrigation heads may not function properly.

A common sight...the irrigation pond holding water. Soils must be dry before the liner can be installed.

Constant pumping from excavated sumps dug into the floor of the basin reduced water levels only so far.

The latest plan to dry out this basin involves placing drain pipe and rock into trenches cut into the floor of the pond.  The trenches lead to a deep sump from which the pumping will continue.

Brett Wenzel, Assistant Superintendent, tilling and prepping an area from which trees were removed.

A hint of green on the hillside below the first tee complex. Extra cover crop was added to this seeding to help stabilize this erosion-prone area.

A view from the back tee on the 16th hole after topsoil was replaced.

Main entrance road  prior to paving with curbing installed.

More concrete work being done in the vicinity of the Pro Shop.

Current shot of the front elevation of the clubhouse.

A steady line of trucks hauling green mix waiting to head out onto the golf course.

Nightmare Continues

Around 8:30 this morning, we received 1.1 inches of rain in about 20 minutes. Needless to say, we took a step or two backwards. Duininck will spend the next couple days cleaning up and repairing erosion fence. In addition to the rain event, we lost power again. Hopefully Xcel will have us back up and running a little quicker this time around. Let's hope the rest of the week is dry and sunny!

We're Back!

To say June was an interesting month would be an understatement. The intense rain storms have caused their share of problems and managed to delay the project schedule in several areas. Two weeks ago our computer network went down so all electronic access and communications ceased. It took our IT department and Century Link one week to get us back online. We put those frustrations behind us and moved on...for one day. Then the storms and torrential rains hit and we lost power. Trees fell on the power lines that were relocated behind the 13th tee. It took Xcel 7 DAYS to restore our power. Needless to say, you don't realize how much we take electricity for granted until you lose it for an extended length of time.

So I find myself playing catch up for the next week. My last blog post was almost a month ago. This morning I downloaded over 200 photos from the project so I have many choices as I try to get you all up to speed. Enjoy!

Drainage being added to the bottom of 14 fairway. The 14th and 15th holes will share a common fairway.

Topsoil is spread on the 4th tee.

A drain line is added for the 15th green. The trenching machine needed to be extricated from the trench it had just cut.

With all of the rainfall we've had in the last month, it has been a losing battle trying to dry this water feature out. Prior to installation of the pond liner, the cavity must be dry to allow for final shaping and liner placement. Needless to say, that process is running four weeks behind schedule. We really need a dry July!

Here is an excavator in the bottom of the irrigation pond attempting to create a sump to collect the water. A pump will move it over the hill into the wetland behind 13 tee.



She's full again!!! Note the cavernous washouts in 13 hillside and the breaches in the erosion fence at the base of the hill.



A Cat regrades the washouts on 13 hillside. The erosion fence is repaired and additional reinforcements are in place.



Here is an unlucky Duininck worker grouting the concrete sections that make up the wet well in the new pump house.



The footings are poured for the pump house.



This is the routing of the new asphalt path that connects the lower parking lot along County Road B with the clubhouse.

Topsoiling the driving range.



This is the beginning of the drainage installation process for green construction. Once the elevations of the green cavity floor are approved by the architect, the trenching begins. This is the 1st green and the orange lines represent a typical herringbone drain tile pattern.

Workers fine tune the bottom of the trench so it is flat. The skid loader operator scoops up the spoils removed from the trench and deposits outside the green cavity.

Progress continues as lateral extensions are added to the pattern.

When the trenching is complete and the cavity floor is cleaned up, two inches of pea gravel is spread in the bottom of all the trenches. Four inch perforated drain tile is placed on top of this gravel bed. All runs are cut to length and connected. All connections are taped to ensure system integrity is maintained for the life of the green. Once the pipe is in place in the trenches,  pea gravel is placed on top of the pipe and the trenches are filled to the surface. Additional pea gravel is mounded over the top of the trenches as a precautionary measure to keep silt out of the trenches in the event of a substantial rain event. There is a photo example in this post that shows what happens in that situation.

This is the second green. As you can see the drainage pattern for this green is not typical. This is to accomodate surface water moving off this green in several different directions. Note the piles of gravel on top of the exposed pipe. This is to keep the pipe from "floating" in the trench. It is important that the pipe stays on the bottom of the trench so the system performs properly.

The seventh green has the more typical herringbone drainage pattern.

After all the trenches are filled with gravel, a four inch layer of gravel is spread across the entire subgrade.

There is a lot of hand work and constant measuring required to achieve a uniform four inch layer.

The finished gravel phase of green construction.

In addition to the golf course construction project, we have initiated an ecological/habitat restoration project in out-of play areas on the golf course. This project includes shoreline and woodland restoration as well as some prairie installation. The project is funded through cost share grants with the Ramsey Washington Metro Watershed District and the Ramsey Conservation District. The above photo shows a recent controlled burn along the fenceline between the 14th hole and Keller Park. This location will be seeded to native prairie.

New fairway bunker on the 17th hole. After the architect's site visit last week it will be moved 15 feet to the left.

This shaping on the 11th fairway is an attempt to raise the right side of the fairway to keep more balls up on top. The trick is to make it as effective as possible yet natural looking. Rick Schefchik, author of "From Fields to Fairways" was on site four weeks ago and I was telling him how Richard Mandell was not 100% sold on how effective such a tweaking would be. As an occasional Keller player, Rick thought any improvement at all would be well worth it and I shared his thoughts with Richard (Rick and Richard know each other). Long story short...a subtle shelf was created on the right side of this fairway and we now refer to it as the "Schefchik shelf."



Duininck shaper, Rich Quisberg, works a mound behind the first green.

 

Another view of the mounding behind the first green. Architect Mandell is following a "utilitarian" design theme for green complexes and bunkering here at Keller. Utilitarian design focuses on  form following function and integrates well with Mandell's minimalist design philosophy.

This added mounding behind the fifth green complex ties into the original mounding and is an example of this utilitarian design concept. Features tend to be rudimentary in design and "human-scale" in size, to use Mandell's words. Additional examples of this design philosophy from the original layout would be the mounding found along the left side of the first hole and the mounding located behind the eighth green.

Two weeks ago, Ramsey County Commissioner and Chair, Rafael Ortega, toured the grounds and new building construction. Ortega, pictured fourth from the right, was impressed with the project.

The roof is complete and the windows are in.

Here is some of the early brick work on the east side of the building.

A close-up of the brick work.

Drywall installation continues on the interior of the clubhouse. 

With almost all of the irrigation mainline installation complete, lateral line installation began several weeks ago. These are  sections of 2" PVC pipe that are glued together to form long runs of pipe hundreds of feet in length. These lengthy pipes are pulled underground with a large vibtatory plow, connecting irrigation heads that are spaced every 75 feet.

A large trencher in action. This unit was used primarily for dranage and mainline irrigation installation.

These are the 2" PVC irrigation lines laid out on the driving range prior to the pulling operation.

The vibratory plow is seen in the distance as it completes pulling a run of pipe across the driving range. One end of the pipe is visible in the foreground.

This is a view from 250 yards out looking back at the third tee.  The white posts indicate irrigation head locations. These locations are determined in the field with the irrigation designer and a staking crew. I spend many hours in the field with this crew approving head loacations as we go. We currently have nine holes staked and ready for pipe and head installation.

The constant rains have produced a healthy crop of mushrooms on the second fairway.

The reason why our operation spent a week in the dark. This is a view of the re-routed power lines behind the 13th tee.

The intense rains have caused all kinds of clean-up issues on the property. This is a trailer located in our maintenance yard next to our dumpster enclosure.

This is an example of why pea gravel is mounded on top of the drainage trenches in the green cavities. The gravel filters out the sand and silt and keeps it from entering the trenches and drain tile. Clean-up requires the contaminated gravel be removed and replenished with clean product.

Multiple rain events caused our drainage system to back up into the second fairway. 

Solutions are currently being explored to rectify the problem.

This site east of the upper parking lot and the location for the new A and B tees for the first hole has been plagued by erosion issues.

Duininck has spent incredible time and effort both in repairing the damages and attempting to prevent further erosion events. Here you can see terraces cut into the hillside to interrupt the flow of water.

A newly installed drainage pipe exiting the side of the this hill caused extensive erosion damage and contamination of the infiltration ponds at the base of the hill. 

Duininck ended up constructing this extensive check dam system below the drainage pipe. It slows down and filters the water prior to entering the infiltration pond at the base of the slope.

During a temporary dry period a week ago, the hillside was seeded to a short dry prairie mix and covered with an erosion blanket.

Within two days a one inch rainfall managed to wash a portion of the blankets on the north side of the site. It has since been re-topsoiled, seeded and covered. The cover crop of oats and annual rye grass should be germinating any day now!