Construction Progress 1/30/13

After another week of horrible working weather last week our contractor was finally able to get back to work again yesterday.  As you can see in this picture they finished grading and prepping #13 green making it ready for sod.

At the same time they were working on #13 another crew was getting started on digging #14 green out.  Which they were able to finish by the end of the day. 

This morning started out by trenching the drain lines inside of #14 green and then starting to install the gravel.  As you can see from the picture below the workmanship is excellent.  They make it a very "clean" process so that there will be no contamination of soil inside the trenches that could possibly get inside the pipes and cause issues. 

Our maintenance staff has taken advantage of break in the weather and we cleared trees back from the pond on #12.  This was a necessary step in the construction process because in the next phase this pond is going to be enlarged by almost double what it is now.  This is being done for a few different reasons, first to make more room to be able to drain the water off of #12 fairway, and second because we need a tremendous amount of soil to raise and shape #11 fairway to be able to drain the water off of that hole as well.  The soil that is excavated from the pond on 12 will be hauled over and used on #11 fairway.  This was a simple solution to get the soil that we needed from our property and save the expense of having to purchase soil and have it trucked into the jobsite. 

Pics 1/21/13

Finally the weather is working in our favor and after a weekend of nice temps and a little wind to help us dry out work was able to continue today on the greens. Here are few pics of what happened on the course today. I will be be making a full update on Wednesday.

Construction progress 1/16/13

The past week has been another busy week here at Ocean Pines.  #15 and 16 green were sodded on Thursday and then the 2 crews moved onto start digging #13 and 18 greens.  This week has put a hold on work because the soil has turned to mud with the rain over the past 2 days.  #13 was dug out on Monday and most of 18 is dug out as well.  After speaking with the project manager yesterday the bad weather this week will have no impact on the overall schedule of the project. 

The picture below in from early last week when the greens mix was being installed in #10.

This is the very early stages of digging #13 green.  The sub base that they are digging to is 16 inches under the surface.  This picture shows that the operator has dug a substantial amount of soil out and now they are using the laser level to make sure the contour of the sub base is exactly 16 inches lower than what the surface will be.  In other words after the soil is removed from the green core the sub base is shaped to the exact contour that the surface of the green will end up.  This way when the 4 inches of gravel is installed it will be exactly 4 inches of gravel across the entire green and the same happens with the 12 inches of mix.  That way the thickness of the 2 products installed are exactly the same across the entire green.  This process is very important because if the thickness of the gravel or the mix becomes to much or to little in some areas this will result in poor turf conditions on the surface.  What we are trying to achieve is a consistant drying of the green over the entire surface.  If there is to much sand in an area of the green then that area will take longer to drain.  Resulting in possible saturated turf and this will contribute to a number of different causes for the turf to decline in this portion of the green.  On the flip side if there is to little sand in an area of the green then this area will drain faster resulting in a "hot spot" that will dry out faster and possibly wilt the turf.  Our contractor does a wonderful job with getting this part of the process correct so that we will have a consistancy in the depth of the mix and this will allow us to have an optimal performing green. 

Even in the rain our crew in the maintenance department is still hard at work out on the course.  Here we are using stone that we found on the property as a border around the cul de sac at the bathroom on #14.  Once this area has a defined border we will lay sod and this will make a tremendous improvement to the look of this area.

Pics 1/14/13

Pics 1/11/13

Pics 1/9/13

Construction Progress 1/9/13

Last week, even though it was another partial week, was a very busy and productive one.  The picture below shows that our maintenance crew was hard at work rerouting the water line around #15 green.  We did this in order to get better sprinkler head coverage.  The way the sprinkler heads were laid out before one of the heads was behind the bunker shown in the picture, almost 15 yards from the green surface.  This distance caused a dry spot in the center of the green because of the inadequate spacing of the heads.  We tried changing nozzles to help the head throw the water farther, but we still couldn't get the coverage that we needed.  So we trenched a new water line between the green and the bunker which allowed us to move 2 of the sprinkler heads closer to the green and get the water coverage that we desired.

Installing new water line #15 green

The greens project is coming along great.  Even with still just one crew last week, since it was a partial week, the contractor was able to core out and prep #16 green last week.  This picture shows them giving #16 the final "finish rake" before they lay the sod on.

Finish raking #16 green

This week the contractor did add another crew to the project.  So they were able to core out and get #15 ready for sod, and they have cored out #10 and are putting the drainage in it as I type this.  We always need at least 2 greens completely ready for sod when we get a truckload because of the amount they can fit on a truck.  A truck load was here this morning when I pulled in and that will sod #15 & 16 today.  That will mean 4 greens are completely finished with another one about half way.  Not bad for the unpredictable weather of December and January. 

Installing the gravel layer in #15 green

Another part of the project that got finished this week was sodding the remaining parts of #11 approach and the green surround. 

Sodding #11 Approach