Project: Drainage Improvement and Creek Restoration Project
Client: Stony Plain Golf Course
Location: Stony Plain, Alberta
The Stony Plain Golf Course is a municipally operated 18-hole championship golf course facility located in the heart of Stony Plain, Alberta. As one of Alberta’s hidden gems, the course features undulating fairways, subtly contoured greens, aggressive bunkering and places a premium on thoughtful shot execution. In an effort address seasonal flooding and playability concerns across multiple golf holes, the Town of Stony Plain commissioned Ohnysty Crough to design and implement a comprehensive drainage improvement plan in the Spring of 2019.
Utilizing historical topographical mapping, as built drawings and on site reviews, the OC Golf team designed and implemented a comprehensive drainage improvement plan which generally included: installation of a subsurface network of 2” perforated drain lines to direct storm water out of fairway areas on hole #1, #10 and #18; the installation of a 12” storm water pipe and corresponding catch basins to efficiently drain storm water runoff out of the driving range from the adjacent roadway; reshaping of driving range including new target greens; and the restoration of the creek bed on hole #14. Due to the potential impacts that loss of play can have on a municipally operated golf course, it was imperative that the work was completed under live golf course operations, minimized service disruptions, and could accommodate limited access to the work site.
To accomplish this, the project team coordinated a site access and control strategy with the Club that restricted major work on key tournament days, utilized dedicated haul routes outside of high traffic areas, prohibited truck traffic from entering school or playground zones in the adjacent community, installed project specific site signage, limited stockpile and equipment laydown areas to the maintenance yard, instituted material delivery schedules outside of peak hours, and used rig mats/plywood bridges to mitigate turf damage. In addition to the drainage improvement work, OC Golf Design also provided consulting services for the regrading of specific green surfaces completed by the Clubs in-house resources. In the end, the project team was able to design and implement long term sustainable drainage solutions with minimal disruption to daily course operation.
