A driving range reinvented

FCANZ
6 days ago
2 min read

While we have constructed a number of artificial shelter belts and overhead canopies, this golf driving range was a bit of a different contract.

At 10-metre-high sports net, 450 metres long and requiring a solution below the net to stop golf balls from rolling under.

The facility was a run-down Golf Driving range located just outside Pukekohe, in Paerata. A landscaping company had taken over the facility and decided to rebuild the Driving Range infrastructure (together with installing 18 covered driving range bays, and a nine-hole mini putt course, which will extend to 18 in future). They had installed the 43 13 metre poles, planning on putting the netting up themselves, but they discovered they lacked the necessary expertise, and after viewing and providing an estimate, we got the job.

We worked out loadings and tension terminations, which resulted in pullingout some of the poles and building reverse raker tie backs on the end assemblies, with dropper cables to take longitudinal loading of the net. We ran out all the cables - being 1,500 metres of 7.5 mm cable - in 3 runs. We sliced and strained up the cables to 1.5 tons, with 5 separate strains.

Our hydraladas go up to 8 metres high, so we couldn’t reach the top cable. We used our excavator and a telescopic cherry picker, using the excavator arm to pull the netting across on the cable.

Because of the golf balls, the perimeter netting needed to be attached to the ground to stop golf balls from getting underneath. We drove fence posts every 1.5 metres and attached 160 x 50 mm ground rails to them, clipping the netting to the rail.

The Iron Yard opened in January, to the delight of the golf-loving residents of Franklin and Clevedon.

Written by Debbie White