Case Study
Red Rock Country Club
Project Description
On 4th of July weekend of 2014, the main irrigation line broke at the Red Rock Country Club Mountain golf course. The main line, which supplies 2 separate golf courses with their irrigation water, ruptured 8 feet below ground. The broken line was at the north end of the practice tee on the Mountain course of Red Rock Country Club. When the area was excavated it was discovered that at the root of the leak were 8” and 10” main water lines.
The 10” water pipe was for the reclaim supply water line which suppled the fairways and roughs. Once the area was excavated it was discovered that the 10″ pipe had an 18 foot long crack in it. The crack in the pipe was undoubtably due to several years of the mechanical fitting of an adjacent line rubbing against it and improper installation of the two lines.
The second leak came from an 8” pipe carrying potable water to the greens and surrounds. This leak was exposed during the excavation of the area. This leak appeared when a solid block of concrete that was holding a tee in place was removed. Once the block of concrete was removed it allowed the seal for the tee to pop out and release all of the water in the line.
Challenges
The main challenges for this repair were due the fact that this was a major holiday weekend in Las Vegas and many parts supply houses were closed for an extended weekend. Available contractors with the ability to handle this type of issue on this holiday weekend were also hard to find and all had steep holiday rates.
PTI Golf's Approach
Even though this was outside of the scope of PTI Golf’s maintenance contract, PTI Golf decided to handle this job in-house. The cost of hiring and outside contractor and the time it would take an outside contractor to respond far outweighed the consequences. PTI Golf’s crews worked from sun up to sun down for 3 days to get water restored to the courses.
As PTI Golf’s crews made the necessary repairs to the potable line they decided to run the new section up and over the reclaim line so that none of the new fittings would be able to rub on or damage the reclaim line again. We wanted to make sure that this repair would be sustainable and that it would not become a problem again in the future.
Once the repairs were complete the lines were covered in sand to further protect them from damage from rocks in soil that was excavated. A new block of concrete was also placed behind the tee for the potable water line to prevent a future blowout from pressure in the line.
Benefits
To Customers
The loss of water to a golf courses in the mid Summer heat in Las Vegas can be devastating. The Summer temperatures can reach 115+ degrees and can quickly destroy a golf course that is not being properly irrigated. The quick thinking and fast actions of our crew’s and superintendents insured that the water down time was minimized and that water that was still available was properly used. This resulted in little to NO turf loss, NO course area closures, and NO revenue loss to the Golf Course.
To Golfer’s
Golfers are always looking for the best playing conditions possible. The fact that there was no turf loss and no closures resulted in the ability for the course to do just that, provide the best conditions possible on a busy holiday weekend. All while the maintenance crews were dealing with what could have been a potentially disastrous problem.
