Water Conservation

Introduction:

This project will be based around a new install on our 13th hole approach area/walk on. Adding in a new irrigation head to the surrounding loop that will more efficiently water this entire area. In hopes to supply an adequate amount of water to the turf grass while decreasing the need for staff hand watering to be done and overall water consumption.

Another small step to making our irrigation system more and more efficient, by looking for these areas that our under/over watered.
This addition will increase the health of the turf grass in this highly trafficked area on an approach of a Par 3.

The site will walk through the project itself with detailed images and videos of the end result. And will go into roadblocks found along the way and the benefits seen from this new addition.

The Plan:

There were multiple options in the initial planning stages of this build that were shown in the preliminary report. After going through each option and actually digging up the head that we would be attaching off of in this case for option 2, we decided to go with this one. Also giving us a chance to try out the electro fuser.
One difference that this planned design left out from the actual build was the pipe ended up being 62ft long of 2 inch HDPE, not the pre-determined 55 ft. This is because we had to extend under an existing greens line that would've been to close to the sprinkler head at the original 55ft.

The Build:

From the first shovel in the ground to firing up the head this job took two days
The first day we were able to get the line down to the base level measurement we wanted and started with the electro fusion fittings.
One of these fittings was able to be done in the shop, being the coupler at the end of the 2 inch HDPE line. Videos of both fittings can be found below.
Now all that needed to be done on day 2 was re-wiring the new head from the existing loop. Adding this head into our irrigation system, I decided to run it with our greens surrounds program.
After this the line was re-filled and sodded back with the original rolls. and then fired up to test arc and nozzle options.

Sod cut 2 strips

Tough soil/gravel mix

New line

Re-wiring from existing greens loop

IMG_6757.MOV

Fuse of 2 inch line into 3 way threaded elbow

IMG_6756.MOV

Scanning Barcode out in the field

IMG_6753.MOV

In house coupler fuse

990E909E-296D-442E-9088-ED6E4218550B.mp4

First run of the new head

video.mp4

Different Angle

Summary/Findings

Overall this build almost felt too easy with the type of tech we were using. After operating the Raptor Electro Fuser it seems as though you've missed a step or forgot something along the way, but it really just makes the process of at least the final stages of an irrigation build seamless.
Before this build myself and some crewmates that hand watered during the heat of the summer hit this area daily for around 6-10 minutes. The goal of this project was to be able to hit this same area with a new head, and use the employee hours for other watering and tasks.
Watering this area for an average of 8 minutes a day for a week ends up being around an hour of paid work, this of course not including time to get out to that specific area and set everything up. Now with this new head being on the surrounds program it cuts out this task while still maintaining moisture levels in the area.

Mentor Comments

Clayton - This was my favorite assignment so far considering before the week started I didn't know there was anything more then butt fusion for HDP pipe. I agree that with this technology it seems almost to easy. I feel like the most important part of this is just keeping a clean worksite (which you did well) any contamination on the pipe can case a poor fuse. now that the new pipe has been in the ground for a few weeks it nice to see its efficacy, no leaks and we haven't had to hand water that walk on a day since.

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