#2 Overlook Bridge

If you have played golf on Overlook over the past few months, you might have noticed something a little different about the bridge behind #2 Overlook green.  Over the years the small creek which runs under this bridge has twisted and turned its way to find the weakest soil.  While the creek has increased its bends, one of the turns of the water is starting to erode the dirt out from under the bridge and the concrete cart path.  Take a look at the pictures to get a better idea:


This picture shows how much of the dirt has eroded under the bridge.  The two large wooden posts you see in the picture supporting the bridge had dirt surrounding them when it was built.  The water is flowing downstream in this picture.


Here is a view looking upstream, facing opposite of the previous picture.  You can see the hole between the concrete and the wooden support.  This has all washed out over time with the heavy rains.  Looking upstream of the creek in this picture, you can see how it has started to wash out the creek bank near the cart path as well.  This will be a problem moving forward that we will need to address as well to protect the cart path. 

This picture shows the other side, or downstream side, of the bridge.  You can see the water has washed all the dirt out from under both sides of the bridge.  It just keeps working its way farther under the concrete, creating quite a big problem.

Here is a view of directly under the bridge.  There is a cave underneath big enough for a bear to live in! 

Here is picture showing the main line of our irrigation system for the Overlook 9 holes.  It has been exposed from all the erosion, and that can become a problem as well.  We will make sure this pipe is well protected while we fix the problem!

This picture does a good job showing how much dirt has been eroded over time.  To fix this problem we will have to remove the panel of concrete in the picture.  Once that panel is removed, we will build wooden walls along the posts of the bridge.  The walls will help to hold the dirt we use to fill up this void which has been created under the bridge.  Once all the dirt is compacted and restored, we will pour a new panel of concrete to replace the cart path.  All of this work is planned to be completed Monday, January 27th.  I will post about the progress this coming week and show how it all turns out!