River Watch
October 1
We officially ran out of water to pump on September 30. The river level was too low to supply the pumps at a required the volume to keep the minimum discharge pressure needed to pump up the elevation change to the reservoir. Then the rain came and we are sitting good now, especially since we blow out the system next week. What did we learn from this year? Mostly, we do need to clean out the intake since compared to previous years pictures the river has been lower and we've been able to draw enough water. Again, not a real surprise, just routine river maintenance. I guess the good news is we inadvertently developed a way to control the output by manually manipulating an existing control valve. So, in conclusion for 2011, we didn't dodge the "no water at the river bullet" but it was only a flesh wound. The plan now is to address the intake and look into alternatives to coping with a more severe low water situation . I'll keep you updated.
Driving Range Update
Elevations on Driving Range
in Metres
Last week we finished moving material in the range. The above chart gives a bit of an idea of quantities of soil that had to be moved. For a reference point for the operator, we set out a line of wooded stakes down the centre of the range and measured elevation (in metres) at each stake with a level. The "1st shot" line was elevations after the bull dozer had stripped the sod and had already spent a day pushing. The "desired" line was created by using the points from the "1st shot" and moving them so the net cut and fill was as close to zero and we could get and still have a horizon that would allow players to see balls landing at the far end of the range. Initially, everyone, literally, said "just push from the front to the back" but without an appreciation for the volume of material to move that is a fairly simplistic way to view the project. For example, using a method called "Average End Area" you can look at one section on the driving range such as the area between 75m and 100m and estimate the amount of material to be removed. By shooting elevations perpendicular to these two points the estimated amount of material to be removed for just that section was 650 cubic metres. For the sake of argument, and if you allow some assumptions such as: the assumption that the entire driving range has a similar profile to the 75/100 metre section and you estimate that from 25 metres all the way to 125 m we needed to cut an average of .5 of a metre you could ball park the amount of material we needed to move to get to the "desired" elevation. Don't take these number to the bank but as a discussion point you could say the amount of material removed was 2600 cubic metre or 3400 cubic yards. Dump truck wise, assuming 15 cubic yards per truck, that is about 227 trucks! Again, there is quite a bit assumptions but if gives you an idea.
Next post will show sodding and end result.
