2023 Drainage Update #7

Wet weather just wont let go of us here at Granite Bay and is definitely the story of 2023 so far. Rainfall amounts over the past two weeks have pushed the 2022-2023 rain year into fourth wettest in the last eighteen. Almost 5" of rain in March which is not unusual but almost 2" over the eighteen year average of almost 3".

All of this rain keeps the golf course pretty wet and limits cart traffic as well as GCM progress on projects, however we have been able to react to fluctuating conditions and continue to make progress. below are some pictures of last weeks progress on fixing a drainage issue on the chipping green.

Updated rainfall accumulation data for the 2022-2023 rain year measured by our own GBGC weather station. March accumulation over the past week and a half has pushed the annual amount of rain to almost 31", making this rain season the fourth highest is eighteen years.

Any type of rainfall or even heavy irrigation would back up and hold on the chipping green and it needed to be repaired. This type of repair fit into a nice window between rain events last week.

First step was to remove the sod in front of and adjacent to the area that pooled up to relieve the "soil dam" that appeared after construction settling,  and do some minor grading to create a better opportunity for surface drainage.

As is sometimes the case, once the guys excavated the sod and started grading, we uncovered a band of native decomposed granite native soil that was damming up the surface flow that needed to be excavated. 

After excavating and grading the area in front of the green and actually under part of the putting surface sod itself, we installed a interceptor drain to catch any subsurface or surface water that naturally drains to the front low spot of any green.

This "interceptor" section of drainage in front of the green tied into a new section of drainage 
that the guys installed right through the newly shaped swale in front of the green.

The new main drain tied into a drainage inlet down below the entire main chipping level.

After the drainage work we replaced and tamped  the sod and applied some sand topdressing to the sod seems

Problem solved.