Golf Course Work Wrapped Up (For Now) Crews Start Moving North

Work on the Golf Course is complete for now.  The seeding company was directed to come in and seed the bare areas with a rye seed which will grow in the now warmer temp days of mid summer and to cover the areas with hay to prevent further erosion while the grass grows.  That cover crop, as it is commonly referred to, is starting to come up and will hold the area until this fall when we expect the seeding sub-contractor to return to put down the blue grass mix that was original specified in the contract and which will be the final grass on the course.

South Golf Course Pond After Seeding Activity

The tall grasses and native plants that will line the ponds will be planted as plugs but will be done in the fall once the ground temperature and weather are conducive to their growth.  There are also a few trees that were planned as part of the project that will be planted in the fall when the seeding contractor returns.

The contractor also finished up the waterway between the golf course ponds and the lower ponds in front of the now vacant condo site.  After an onsite review of the waterway we made the decision to add a couple rock check damns to help protect run off from occurring in major rain events.

Waterway to Condo Ponds Looking South with Rock Checks

As of this morning we were already seeing good grass growth on the newly seeded areas (a benefit of the choice to go with rye seed) and a good start to the growth of the blue grass on the berms (blue grass takes longer to mature).

Looking North at Golf Course Ponds With Grass Growth

Work continues to progress on the digging of the two southern most ponds.  These ponds, located in front of the now vacant condo project, will always be filled with water at the same level as the lake which makes the construction of them difficult to say the least.

Lundell Construction also has a crew working on installation of the pipe going north from HWY 7.  This pipe will connect the water from the pond north of the railroad tracks to the ponds at the golf course.

Pipe Crew Lowering Pipe into the Ditch

While this work is occurring the northern most pond at the golf course is being pumped to keep the water levels low to make installation of the pipe upstream easier.  Once the pipe work is done the pumping will cease.

Moving forward work will continue on the ponds south of the golf course and the pipe work going north.  The contractor expects the pipe work to take another two weeks to complete pending weather.  Work will then most likely move north of the railroad tracks and progress north from there.  Work in and around the subdivision of Rose, Tulip, and Violet Lanes is still planned toward the end of the project and at this point is several weeks out.

Rain Gives Way Finally ? Project Schedule Update

It's been awhile since the last blog post but the weather hasn't been the best for seeing major gains on construction work the last week or so - we are hoping the weather is looking up for the upcoming week or so to get the golf course work finished up.

Lundell and their sub-contractors are working on the finishing touches at the golf course.  The sub-contractor for the concrete work has been working on pouring the concrete for the golf cart paths late last week and early this week.

Crews pour the southern most cart path.

Crews poured the southern most cart path by hand on Tuesday, June 11th as the ground was too wet to get trucks in which would have caused more damage to the course.

The main path between the #1 hole and the #9 hole was placed last week and is shown below.

The main cart path between holes 1 and 9.

While the concrete contractor was busy with the cart paths the prime contractor, Lundell Construction has been working on the other ponds starting this week with the excavation of the ponds to the south of the condo property.  They have found a high water table in this area which is to be expected as the area is old dredge fill and these ponds will be wet ponds and maintain water at the level of the lake most of the time.

Excavation begins on the southern most ponds of the project.

Moving forward the contractor is three (3) weeks behind schedule primarily due to the weather and wet conditions.  Thus the contractor is hoping to start work on stages 4 & 5 which includes pipe work between HWY 7 and the Railroad tracks on June 24th.  The far northern portions of the project, those around Rose, Tulip, and Violet Lane, appear to be scheduled for starting around mid to late July 2013.

Finally, yesterday we had the great privilege of presenting all the great projects that are going on in Storm Lake, including the East Central and North Central Storm Water Projects to the Director and Deputy Director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.  These projects while providing much needed relief to residents and property owners who experience flooding conditions are also critical to the preservation of Lake Storm Lake by implementing innovative storm water practices to help clean and filter storm water before out letting the water into Storm Lake.

City Manager Jim Patrick presents City projects to Director Gipp and  Deputy Director Trautman.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources and State of Iowa continue to be key partners in the restoration and preservation of Lake Storm Lake with the City of Storm Lake, City of Lakeside, Buena Vista County, and private citizens something that we are very grateful for.  Opportunities like yesterday's are a good way to highlight the ways are partnerships are strong and how the citizens of this community are committed to the long term preservation of the natural resources we enjoy.

Golf Course Work Nearing Completion

Among all the rain drops Lundell Construction continues to move forward on the East Central Project.  It's been a while since I updated so we'll a lot of updates here.  Lots of pictures with this update!

First a note of caution:  Golfers should note that in the area of work being done the bare ground where work has been done is very muddy following rain events especially heavy rain events.  Please use caution when trying to pass in those areas and use the available gravel cart path between the two ponds and holes #1 and #9 for crossing the project area.

Work is getting close to complete on the golf course but the weather will still play a major role in the progress and the final timing of the work and when the contractor can move off site.  With the upcoming week looking very wet it is possible that the project will not see much progress this holiday shorten week.

Lundell was doing finishing touches last week to the major earth work parts of the golf course work (Phase 1) touching up the berms on the north and south sides of hole #9 and finishing up the final grading on the two ponds.  That work is now finished.

Contractor working on finishing up the berms on Hole #9

Shot of Hole #9 looking east with the berms to the side and the pond .

On Thursday the contractor installed the iron filings in the southern pond.  The filings will help reduce the phosphorous that comes off the golf course.  In the following picture you can see the product being used.

Photo of the iron filings

The filings were mixed with sand in a small cut our area of the east side of the pond shown in the picture below.  In that picture the contractor is filling the pocket area with sand prior to putting the filings on top.

Contractor putting down the first layer of sand

Once the sand was in place they placed a thin layer of the iron filings over the top.  The filings and sand were placed in two lifts or sections with each section being blended together.

Spreading the iron filings on top of the first layer of sand.

Once the filings were in place they used a tractor to till the filings into the sand and then a second layer was placed down with a final two inch layer of sand on the top.

Tilling the filings into the sand layers

The area will be playable must like a sand trap with the iron filings below the top layer of sand.  Water from the course draining to the west will filter into the sand area and filter the water before running into the pond.  Additionally, during heavy rain events the pond will fill up and the top layer of the pond will spill over into the sand area filtering that water as well.  The sand, iron filings area was built with a border on it to prevent the sand and iron filings from slipping back into the pond.

Since our last update the contractor also had their sub contractor in Storm Lake to work on the second bore under the railroad tracks.

The survey crew from the project engineers, Bolton & Menk were also in town this past week marking the areas for the cart paths.  The contractor then cut in the middle cart part (the path between holes #1 and #9) on Thursday.  Golfers are encouraged to use this route and this route only to cross the construction area for the time being especially following rain events when the other dirt areas will be muddy and impassable.

Survey crew marking out the cart paths

So what's left on the project?  The sub-contractors for seeding and plantings will be in (weather pending) this next week (May 28th - 31st) to seed the golf course and plant the plants in the ponds.  City crews will be installing the water lines through the project area and the sub-contractor for the paving will be in to pave the cart paths.  Once those tasks are complete the contractor will be ready to move on to another area of the project.

At the present time we anticipate the contractor to move to the north of the project area and start the digging out of the ponds north of the railroad tracks through the old abandoned railroad right-of-way that the City owns moving north to East 4th Street.  They are going to move there prior to digging the ponds in front of the condo area due to equipment availability.  We don't anticipate any construction to take place in the housing sub-division area or between the railroad tracks and HWY 7 until the pipe crew is back onsite.

Cleaning Stormwater Through Iron Filtration

Phosphorus pollution is the primary cause of algae blooms in lakes.  In addition to being unsightly, severe algae growth can deplete the oxygen levels in the lake and seriously affect fish health.  In severe cases, extreme algae growth can give rise to the toxic bluegreen algae that has been known to kill pets that drink the tainted water.

The storm water runoff that enters catch basins and storm sewer pipes has been shown to carry phosphorous laden sediment as well as soluble phosphorus.  The recent construction through the Storm Lake Golf Course includes storm water ponds that are designed to capture and effectively remove the sediment borne phosphorous.  However, research shows that dissolved phosphorous constitutes approximately 45% of the total load carried by storm water runoff.  Therefore, innovative stormwater treatment practices are necessary to fully protect Storm Lake from significant, and costly, water quality problems for future generations.   

A relatively recent advancement in the removal of dissolved phosphorus from urban stormwater is Iron Enhanced Sand Filtration.  While applications of the iron filter continue to progress with continued popularity, they are typically used in overflow areas of traditional stormwater ponds.  As stormwater flows into the pond, the water surface rises into the iron filter area and trickles down through the sand.  The filtration medium contains approximately 5% iron filings by weight and is mixed into the sand medium prior to placement in the filtration area.  In between rainfall events, the iron will rust which creates an ideal condition for phosphorus to absorb.  The iron continues to break down and rust over time, creating new sites for phosphorus absorption.  The East Area Water Quality project includes an iron enhanced filtration “bench”, integrated into a sand trap area, in one of the golf course ponds that filters stormwater runoff from much of the east side of Storm Lake.  Construction of this "bench" has been completed and the iron filings will be incorporated into the bench in the upcoming week.

Weather Continues to Be Biggest Challenge

The weather continues to be the biggest challenge with snow last week and rain this week the project contractor continues to work around the weather.  Regardless progress is still strong and things continue to progress.

Before we get to far into the happens over the last few days I want to take a minute to comment on timeline for the project.  Obviously the weather is impacting the project schedule to a good degree.

The primary focus of the contractor continues to be the ponds and piping in the Sunrise Pointe Golf Course area.  We would anticipate that to continue for the next couple of weeks weather depending in an effort to get the course back to normal as soon as possible.  Another reason for this area being the priority is that before the contractor can install piping and systems near the problem area they have to be ready to move the water that is collected to the north or they will just cause further flooding problems.

We do know that the contractor is doing everything possible to get back on schedule to try and ensure a timely completion of the golf course work.  In that light they are planning to do some work on the course on Saturdays over the next couple of weeks.  This could impact play on the course and we would encourage golfers to be alert to the contractors equipment and to play accordingly during the construction.  We do apologize for the impacts and construction but hope that the long term benefits both for the residents who will see flooding relief and the golfers will be worth the minor inconvenience.

There was some marking and locating of utilities in the neighborhood around the East 4th Street portion of the project which may lead to the belief that work will be starting in that part of the project soon. Those markings are not directly associated with the project.  Alliant Energy will be relocating a gas main in the area starting later this week or next to move it out of the way of the project's underground piping.

We are working on an updated schedule which we'll update here on the blog in the upcoming days.

The contractor has finished the the rough work on the two ponds at the Golf Course and is working on the finishing work at this point.  Here are a few pictures of the finished ponds as of May 7, 2013.

Pond in front of #9 Green.

Pond in front of #1 Tee Boxes with final grading occurring.

Work also continues to progress on the shaping of the berms on either side of the #9 Fairway as shown in the photo below:

Crews moving and shaping dirt on the berms around the #9 fairway.

Also occurring this week the Street Department staff installed two project signs at key points in the project area, one at the Sunrise Pointe Golf Course and one at the entrance to the residential sub-division. These signs contain a QR Code which visitors and residents can scan with their smart phone using a QR Reader (many are available and free to download and use).  When the code is scanned on the smart phone or tablet it will automatically take the user to our project web page where they can learn more about the project and/or read this blog!  If you see the sign check it out!

Project sign with the QR Code at the Sunrise Pointe Golf Course.

Thanks to the Street Department for getting these signs installed!

KCAU TV Spotlights Project

Thanks to KCAU TV in Sioux City for coming over today and spotlighting the East Central Storm Water Project.  The story was shown on the 6:00PM news tonight and is available on their web page - you can view the video of the story here:

Storm Lake Takes Steps Against Severe Street Flooding

Work continues to move forward with the weather providing a break from rain and snow Lundell Construction is working hard to make lots of progress while the weather is good.

Crews were busy working today on the manhole on the north side of the HWY 7 and also on digging out the first pond at the Sunrise Pointe Golf Course.

Work will continue with the shaping of the pond and then the digging and shaping of the second pond which will contain the iron filling sand mixture that will remove phosphorous from the water prior to the water out letting into Lake Storm Lake.

We'll try to add some more pictures on the project tomorrow.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain

Progress was moving forward on the East Central project through the early days of this week but with all the moisture progress has ground to a stand still, giving me a few minutes to get caught up on blog entries.

Before we get caught up on the project I want to take a minute to review why we are doing the project.  With all the rain in the past couple of days water is backing up on Tulip Lane causing residents problems accessing their driveways and homes.

Tulip Lane Water Build Up April 17th

There are a couple reasons for the backups the first is the inability of the existing storm water collection system to pick up the amount of rain and runoff that is existing in the area from minor to major events.  The system that is present is nothing more than a slightly enhance field tile drainage system that was never intended to handle the amount of run off from an urban section such as what is built there now.

The second reason is the amount of debris and trash that collects in this area.  City crews have been out to the Tulip Lane area several times over the past few days and cleaned out clogs in the intakes that are due to the accumulation of trash and debris getting washed into the intakes and collection system.  Once clogged the water that had a slow route out ends up with NO route out.  Residents in the area can help this second issue by picking up garbage and ensuring that grass and leaves don't get into the street and to the intakes.

So in summary two issues here 1. limited capacity in the existing system and 2. garbage and debris blocking the limited capacity.  The solution to the first issue is on the way through this project.  Capacity will be greatly enhanced and the water will be cleaned through the enhance collection process.  The solution to the second problem could still cause problems in the future if we all don't do our part to help keep the intakes clean.  Remember that pop bottle that gets washed down will block the system or eventually end up in the lake - neither option is something we want to achieve.

Now back to the project . . .

As we have talked about previously the only way to work the project is to focus on the southern portion of the project first so that as we get to the areas like Tulip Lane where massive amounts of water are waiting to be collected and moved we have the systems in place below to handle them and clean the water prior to out letting it into the lake.  Thus the majority of the work on the project is focus right now around the golf course where the major holding ponds will be located.

Work on Monday continued to build the structures that are on either side of the HWY 7 bore.

Manhole on South side of HWY 7 where other storm water pipes join prior to going into the ponds in the golf course.

The picture above shows the new manhole installed on the south side of HWY 7 with the joining locations for the other storm water lines coming in.  The manhole is connected at the bottom to the line that was bored in last week and that will bring water in from the areas to the north once everything is connected.  The smaller lines coming in from the east and west are lines that bring in storm water collected along the HWY 7/East Lakeshore Drive road through the existing rain gardens.

Prior to the manhole being installed you could see as shown in the picture below the pipe that was bored into place under the road.

The south side of the storm water pipe that was bored into place.

Crews from Lundell were also preparing to start work on the ponds in the golf course.  Prior to digging the ponds they had to prepare an area for placement of the dirt they were going to excavate.  In our plan that dirt will help form some additional berms on the course.  To prevent run off from the piles as they build them they started by installing silt fence which is actually dug into the ground around the areas where the berms will be built.

Crews install Silt Fence

The next step was to pull off the top layer of black dirt on the existing area which will be reserved for placement back on top to provide a good fertile soil for the grass to grow.

Crews removing black dirt from the existing course where the new berms will be placed.

The contractor is hopeful that if we can get a week to a week and a half of good weather they can get the ponds on the golf course dug and established and the berms in place.  The key being good weather and even though the rain may not be falling after the amount that we have had and with more on the way it could take some time to dry the area out before work can resume.