Big irrigation
1 Feb, 2007 By: Lorne Haveruk, Russ Prophit Landscape Management"Let's look at a typical big project," said Tim Malooly, president of Irrigation Consultants & Control, Inc., Plymouth, MN, "1,200-acre master-planned community with common area irrigation being fed from multiple linked small lakes. Add holding ponds, delivering thousands of gallons of water per hour through a network of buried pipes ranging in sizes from one to 10 inches in diameter stretched out over 12 miles."
Get the picture? Big project. Welcome to some of the most grandiose, largest, mind-boggling irrigation in the nation. If this was golf or Ag, not so large, but for turf and residential, this is humongous.
State Capital Mall, Dancing Waters. Cobblestone Lake. Spirit of Brandtjen Farm. ARCC Campus. These names sound large. And, for good reason. These are big commercial, master-planned and institutional projects that have been completed in Minnesota or are still ongoing, phase five. They will devour you if you let your guard down — even for an instant.
 A Hoover Pump Station will supply 2,100 gpm of water to homes and common areas. |
Getting started
Your goal is not only to survive, but to feast on the monster, which first comes into hazy view as a concept by a dream team, part of a large development company or consortium that acquires a large tract of land. Slowly its features emerge as the development moves a step at a time towards culmination. Engineering firms create AutoCAD and/or PDF drawings, and the features of the beast sharpen. Next, the landscape design firm creates concept and renderings again and again.
Take a pool table, get out your tape gun and paste the drawings together. The green felt is now covered with white paper full of lines and symbols depicting the scope of the project. the true size of this thing comes into focus.
But wait, the irrigation system must be designed. Pick a corner and work your way to the other corner. Sounds easy doesn't it? Yeah, if you're an experienced design firm and have talented staff to back you up.
 Tips for tackling: The big job |
Then there's the question of time. Do you have 10 days to devote to this design, and that is after all of the legwork and investigations are completed?
Welcome to the profession of irrigation design. You're an artist, engineer, scientist, horticulturalist, mathematician, dreamer and a get-it-done person. But make one mistake on the hydraulic calculation for the mainline and you become lunch for the beast.
There are more than a few brave souls who routinely take on these projects. To their credit, they're willing to share insights into the training, approach, strategy and completion stages, so we can better understand how to win.
 At over 600 acres, the Portico site was designed and installed by Big Tree Inc. in Fort Myers, FL. |
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