OWENSBORO, Ky. - Most irrigation projects don’t involve dodging traffic, threading pipe and wiring under a highway or working in an area at times no more than one foot wide. But that’s exactly the situation Jerry Yeiser’s crew is experiencing on a roadway median irrigation project comprising 16 islands of grass and plants on south Frederica Street in Owensboro, Ky.
Yeiser, owner of Perf-A-Lawn, a lawn care and irrigation contracting company in Owensboro, anticipates sending two three-man crews this week to the mile-long job site located in the heart of a newer business district in town. The $10,000 installation project involves connecting the 16 islands with water and electric by boring underground and installing zoned irrigation systems for turf and landscape areas.
Although Yeiser said Perf-A-Lawn has recently added directional boring to its list of services, the boring between all 16 islands was handled a few weeks ago by Owensboro Municipal Utilities, which luckily had no problems with drilling the two channels and laying the pipes - one for water and one for electric. Yeiser said that is a rare instance when boring for a project of this size because there are often unseen underground obstacles, like utility lines or construction debris, in the way. "When you’re doing directional boring you can run into anything. You can get all kinds of surprises," he said.
WATER CHALLENGES. The islands range in width from about one foot wide near the ends to about 12 feet wide, causing potential adjustment problems for the system. "What’s going to be the biggest problem is separating the landscape from the sod because you don’t have that much sod to spray, and you’ve got some areas that are over two feet wide on each side that you’ve got to try to keep watered without drowning the plants," explained Yeiser.
To compensate for the odd layout of sod and plant areas, Yeiser said his crew will zone areas separately for landscaping and turf areas. He said he’ll choose a variety of heads and nozzles that won’t spray more than two to three feet wide, place them next to the plants and pour the water back towards the street so more hits the turf areas than the plants.
PRODUCTIVITY CHALLENGES. The space limitations of the islands also present a challenge from a productivity standpoint, as Yeiser’s crews will have to do more handwork than with a more open installation project. He said he will be able to use a vibratory plow on most of the lines, but there will be a lot of shovel work when digging trenches in areas the machine won’t work and also when installing heads, valves and other components. "It’s not that big a job. It’s just going to be a little aggravation and more time consuming than the others because you’re going to have to do a lot of handwork," said Yeiser. "Most of the islands are very narrow, so you’ve just got room to get down through."
SCHEDULING CHALLENGES. The city of Owensboro decided on this project based on the logistic problems surrounding watering the island medians. City workers had been using trucks to get water to the traffic island, which blocks one lane of traffic on one of the city's busiest streets.
Now Yeiser’s crew will be blocking lanes of traffic to install the irrigation systems, which means using cones and road signs to route traffic around the crews. "Traffic is going to be the biggest problem - so we’re going to really have to be concerned about it - because they’ve already got the water to the island," explained Yeiser. "We just have to pick up from there and start the system and go through with it."
To limit the impact on local traffic and on his crews’ safety, Yeiser said he will probably start the crews at about 9 a.m. after traffic dies down, break at about 11 or 11:30 a.m. and then come back around 1:30 p.m. through late afternoon. He anticipates getting in about six hours a day without having to be too big of a burden to the traffic or the crew. Yeiser said his crews will blockade an island at a time, get it done and move on to the next one. "You just put up signs, try to pick a time when traffic’s not the worst and work it from that angle," he explained.
Although he wants to do the work during the week, Yeiser has not ruled out Saturday and even Sunday work if necessary, but he won’t make that decision until he sees how the project goes when they start.
Regardless of the potential downtime at the island project, Yeiser does not foresee actual down time for his crews. "We have other jobs going so we’ll just shift back and forth," he explained. "We’re in a small community where if it gets too hectic that we can’t work this job, we’ll just move to another one and go right on."
Yeiser estimates that the project will take about three weeks, depending on any unforeseen problems and the ability to get the work done in a timely fashion with all of the challenges involved. Once the systems are all set, Yeiser said the city will schedule the systems to water at night and/or in the early morning when traffic is at a minimum.
The author is Internet Editor of Lawn & Landscape Online.
