Just another brick in the wall...

After just a few days, the "brickies" have almost finished the construction of the foundation and outer walls.  Also this week the installation of underground conduit was completed.  Toledo Edison will use this conduit to install new electrical service to this building.

Overall things are going nicely.  All of the contractors seem to be on the same page to this point.  Once Toledo Edison finishes their installation of our new transformer, pole, and wire, it is all up to our pump contractor and electrician to finish their portion of the installation (pipes and pumps).  Your maintenance staff will be doing all of the cleanup and finish work around the building as well as some "lipstick and rouge" work this winter (painting, shelf and wall construction etc)

Below are a few pictures and details of the past week.

This foundation is 5 courses of block beneath the surface.  Your maintenance crew helped reduce cost by performing all of the backfill work inside and outside of the foundation. 

Textured "split face" block was selected for improved aesthetics.  The building will be painted after construction is complete and before the new concrete floor is poured.

The southern wall after just one day of setting block.

Southern wall and installed double door day two.

The north wall will have a small door for access to range house.

These double doors are on our end of the building to allow installation of pump station components and acid injection tanks and equipment.

4 full days of setting block and three and a half of four sides are complete.  Not too bad for a small crew.

This machine is our directional boring machine.  This thing is really cool.  Workers use this to precisely and rather quickly install underground conduit to the depth and specification set by us and Toledo Edison.  Basically a horizontal drill that made a hole and pulled 1000' of 4" conduit from the building to the right of #1 tee.

All underground with no surface disruption.  Done in 3 days.  No trench, no sod, no fuss and no muss.  Sweet piece of equipment.

A new "footprint" at HMGC

As you have likely noticed the construction of our range/pump house has begun to the right of #9 north fairway and the driving range.  Despite my rambling in newsletters, my blog, and even in public forums in front of the members, there is still some confusion as to what this thing is here for.

The footers have been poured and ready to stack block.

First thing you noticed is it's not that big.  We tried to minimize potential interference with golf and future improvements by working closely with our golf course architect.   Obviously placement is very important not just now but relative to future master plan work.

The building is 20' x 36'.  Approximately 1/3rd of that (12x20) will be used to house the new pump electronics and injection system (more on this when it gets installed) as well as storage for irrigation repair parts and supplies.  There will actually be no pumps in the building, only the controls that operate them.  Having a small building will lengthen the life of these electronics as well as protect them against maintenance issues.  We are putting about a $60,000 "water computer" in there, and we want to keep it functional for at least the next 15-30 years.  The computer actually costs just slightly more than the building if you can believe that.  The water will be plumbed into this building so that it may be treated with our new infection system and sent back to our existing main line along #9 creek.

The other 2/3rds of the building will be much needed storage for the driving range, club fitting, and golf instruction operations.  The ball washer will be relocated here as well as the multitude of eqiupment currently occupying space in the bag room.  Wintertime will allow storage of the range picker.

As far as appearance, the building will be a block-type construction with "split face" blocks.  Most schools, hospitals, municipal buildings you see are split-face CMU block.  Originally, to save money we budgeted for a metal building.   Amid concerns about longevity, appearance, and the likelihood of balls making an awful racket when bouncing off of it, the board opted for more permanent construction for a minimal upcharge.

Typical split-face block

Overall, the construction should take about 3-4 weeks.  New power will be installed now that the building position is set, and finally we will be getting pipe and pumps installed to tap the new water in our wells.

I will keep you posted as we approach major milestones.  Keep enjoying this great fall golf weather.

-Dan