“Aspen did a great job in giving us quality work and working within the budget,” says Hale Irwin. “We had a lot of confidence in what they were doing on a day-to-day basis and they came up with some really good ideas along the way. They were able to use their experience to execute really quality

work. They saw what we saw—the opportunity to create something really special!”

Case StudyLodestone Golf Course

McHenry, Maryland

Top Flight Golf on Top of the Mountain

Lodestone Golf Club is sited across 285 acres of mountainous terrain high above Wisp Resort and Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland. Legendary golf professional Hale Irwin teamed with Denver-based golf design firm Design Workshop to create Lodestone. The visually stunning, tournament caliber golf course is located on the top of a chal-lenging and environmentally-sensitive mountain-top site.

“We wanted to offer a golf facility that would be challenging and exciting, with enough opportu-nity to bring all the dynamics into play,” says Hale Irwin. “At the same time, the golf course needed to be of the same quality as the housing development so that the two could naturally coexist, so while we were looking at views for the golf course, we were also framing views from the home sites.”

The best land and dramatic views were selected for golf course and residential development, even when those choices posed extreme construction challenges.....

PROJECT GOALS • Showcase the land and natural topography while

making the golf course fit naturally into the environment.

• Implement an extensive E&S plan so that the water coming off the golf course site has a mini-mal impact on wetlands, an environmentally sensitive Tier II trout stream, and Deep Creek Lake.

PROJECT CHALLENGES/SOLUTIONS • 120,000 cubic yards of rock!

The routing of the golf course weaved across the entire mountain to take best advantage of “borrowed views,” so Aspen had to deal with a large amount of indigenous rock throughout construction and irrigation installation.

Because Aspen has depth in both personnel and ownership of extensive equipment for excavating rock, a precise combination of blasting, drilling, and hoe ramming was used to excavate the 120,000 cubic yards of rock necessary for the

Lodestone Golf Courseproject to meet the expectations of the owners and architect and “fit like a glove.”

Architect Todd Schoeder praises Aspen’s efforts. “What was thought to be a challenging construction site turned out to be much more difficult than originally anticipated,” he said. “Massive rock outcroppings were uncovered during grading and with a delicate touch, As-pen incorporated these rugged features into the design without any additional costs.”

• $1.3 million dollar E&S program There were extensive E&S control and water quality issues throughout construction. Coincidentally, the first construction season came with record rain falls that tested the limits of the E&S plan. The controls remained intact throughout, protecting the wetlands and trout stream from sediment transport. “The erosion and sediment control plan was implemented to perfection and consequently, passed all inspections from the Maryland Department of Environment,” says golf course architect Todd Schoeder. “Aspen went out of their way to identify and protect native wildlife corridors that still are in place, even as the course is open for play.”

Measures were built into the golf course to treat not only golf course runoff, but also future residential runoff. A great many of the diversion swells were seeded with native fescues which not only protect the golf course, but were left intact to provide infrastructure for future development.

• All about drainageAspen chose an extremely environmentally friendly HDPE pipe which also allowed Aspen to install the irrigation system without

going as deep into the rock as the PVC pipe design had required.

“This course would be considered ‘green’ already because of the HDPE pipe,” says Ronnie Adkins, Vice-President of Aspen, ”but Lodestone challenged us with one environmen-tal condition – the rock – that produced an even more ‘green’ project in that we used flat HDPE drain tile that could lay directly on top of the subgrade.”

Aspen drew upon its earlier experience in build-ing the four-hole addition at Wisp Resort and the bridging of three construction seasons at Lodestone to learn a great deal about the water table and how to best anticipate groundwater and wet weather spring activity. “There were many areas on several holes that had to have multiple cut-off drains installed. says Aspen president Donnie Adkins. “These challenges only became apparent after going through the four distinct seasons that occur each year at Wisp Resort. Because we had worked on the previous project, we knew what to expect.”

PROJECT RESULTS Architect Todd Schoeder says he is very pleased with Lodestone. “I couldn’t be more pleased with Aspen’s performance. Even though they had to work through an abnormally wet and cold con-struction season, Aspen meet every construction deadline and within budget. The quality of their work is unsurpassed!”

Steve Richards of DC Development, owner of the Wisp Resort, agrees. “From shapers to finishers, everybody at Aspen is as good as they get. Even with change orders, Donnie (Adkins) was right up front about costs; we changed one hole four times and Aspen always took the time to detail what needed to be done to accomplish our goals.”

CORPORATE OFFICERonnie Adkins, Vice President2400 Ritter DriveDaniels, WV 25832(304) 763-4573

SOUTHEAST DIVISION OFFICENick Mazzella, Business Manager2015 Ayrsley Town Boulevard, Suite 202Charlotte, NC 28273(704) 280-8498

Location:Type of project:Cost:Construction started:Course opened:Architect:

Builder:Course Superintendent:Owner Representatives:

McHenry, MDNew construction$18 million plusMay 2007June 2010Collaboration between Hale Irwin and Todd Schoeder, Design WorkshopAspen CorporationScott McMillionSteve Richards, DC Development

Reshaping the World–One Golf Hole at a Time

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Why not call us today and find out more about the Aspen advantage? Or visit us online at www.aspen-golf.com.