LOCATION: Orlando, Fla.
COMPANY: Massey Services

Partnering with the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) for an Earth Day beautification project, Massey Services donated 142 labor hours to install an irrigation system at the onePULSE Foundation, says Bill Cohn, director of quality assurance for the GreenUP division of Massey Services.

The onePULSE Foundation converted the property — originally a home built on Lake Lucerne — into a memorial and museum to honor the 49 lives lost, those injured and first responders of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting tragedy. Crews were required to manually dig on the designated historical site and had to inspect any issues with the system found while digging.

The team initially planned to modify the existing system, Cohn says, but they had to change plans and design a new one when crews found the irrigation system in poor condition from construction damage on the site.

“The new design maintains higher distribution uniformity and efficiencies, meeting the landscape’s water needs while wasting very little through runoff and nontarget applications,” he says.

Crews replaced the system’s high-volume spray and rotor designs with drip irrigation and an MP Rotator system with 45 percent less water usage. The drip irrigation line uses about 70 percent less water compared to overhead irrigation while providing the same efficiency. Hunter Industries provided the major system components, including a Hydrawise Smart Wi-Fi irrigation controller, master valve, drip line, MP Rotators and pressure-regulated spray bodies. Massey Services salvaged as much of the original irrigation system as possible to re-use and repurpose.

While the system didn’t span a large area, crews installed several zones due to the shape and complexity of the property.

“It required a lot of fine-tuning,” Cohn says. “It was a fun system and design to work with.”

Dowdle is a freelance writer based in Birmingham, Ala.