The IrriTurf co , Inc. has been recognized by Smith Turf & Irrigation with 3 separate honors for the state of Virginia.  Smith Turf & Irrigation, an industry leader in the distribution and support of quality irrigation products, is based in Charlotte, NC.

• 2002 Excellence in Irrigation Award - commercial application design and build of irrigation systems at James Madison University

JMU did not want to add multiple controllers and hoped they could eliminate the need for the multiple existing controllers at their new and old campus areas.

the IrriTurf co. and JMU came up with an innovative answer.  The university’s Building Automated Systems (BAS) utilize Johnson Control Panels and we applied this existing resource to our irrigation system valves; turning them on and off according to the parameters of our watering schedule.

wired the automated valves to each of the control panels.  This allows automatic application of the watering schedule, or manual operation of the entire irrigation system from a central location.  The Landscape and Grounds department has a terminal set up in their shop to allow for an override in the case of rain, Gubernatorial Executive Ordinances due to drought or any such emergencies.  All existing controllers, almost anywhere on campus, can be retrofitted to a control panel and implemented into the new irrigation layer and programming.

The pump station did not need to be connected to a BAS control panel because it operates on a flow demand, not by a master valve command.  The pump station is manufactured by Cycle Stop Valves and is a patented pump control valve

- makes a variable flow pump out of a constant speed pump

- automatically chokes back the output of a pump to match the   users water requirements.

The CSV is completely mechanical requiring no electronics. This pump station features soft start and soft stop, mechanical on/off pressure switch, mechanical low discharge pressure switch, overload shutdown, individual motor phase loss and low voltage protection.  The pump station is capable of providing a 50psi boost @ 200 gpm.  Without any digging, the 2” service line and meter can be upgraded to 3” thereby enabling 200 gpm to be delivered to the system.  

The pump station and backflow are in a vented 9’x14’x7’ vault with an aluminum hatch and ladder.  The vault has a 4” drain pipe to daylight; both the backflow and electrical panel have been installed above the drain.  A sump pump is also installed to protect the pump station from any water damage.

 
From the pump vault, at 32” below grade, a 4” ductile iron pipe carries water and pressure through 3000 feet of mainline to the last valve.  The 100 gpm passes through a 2” 252 series Toro valve; divided through 45 super 800 heads and delivers 2 gpm to the critical head with 50.15psi.  At every turn on the mainline the IrriTurf co. installed concrete thrust blocking.  Isolation valves were positioned before every Toro zone valve.  14-gauge tracer wire was laid in with every foot of irrigation pipe installed making all the irrigation lines easy to locate.  All ductile mainline was tested in 200ft. increments with a hydrostatic pressure pump at 155psi.  After JMU Engineers approved each test the 4” ductile was backfilled with gravel to the top of the pipe before backfilling with clean fill. The excess material was hauled off and seeding went down.

Since the mainline piping ran through large areas with no in-ground irrigation, connection points and multiple strand valve wire were installed along the mainline for the easy installation of future zones.  Connection points for the JMU water reel units were also provided at strategic locations.

The IrriTurf co. created an as-built drawing on AutoCad that clearly identifies all the irrigation materials installed down to the last head.  With this information we provided detailed descriptions of isolation points, splice boxes, connection points, future connection points and many special notes of interest.