Chicago dump re-use is not par for the course

The two golf courses that comprise Harborside International Golf Center are just 16 minutes from downtown Chicago and on one of the city’s highest elevations at a site originally used for disposal of municipal solid waste and, later, for incinerator ash and wastewater sludge. Another portion was used as a landfill for construction debris.

The first nine holes of the Starboard course and the first 15 holes of the Port course are built on the sanitary waste landfill, and the remaining holes–in addition to the teaching facility and practice ranges–are built on the construction rubble landfill.

Because of the site’s past use, construction of the golf center involved some unique challenges. For example, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency required that the 225 acres that comprised the former landfill be capped with two feet of impervious clay to prevent runoff and seepage into groundwater.

In 1995, the city contracted with Nugent & Associates, Long Grove, Ill., to complete plans and specifications, financial feasibility studies, construction cost estimates and golf course construction management plans for the new facility.

To accomplish the necessary seal, 200,000 cubic yards of clay were dredged from adjoining Lake Calumet. An added bonus was the creation of a boat marina on the site. In the process, a section of the lake was dammed and 200,000 fish carefully removed while their habitat was deepened and improved. Special provisions were made to protect and relocate approximately 25,000 fish to open water.

After Lake Calumet was drained and dredged, the cap material was brought directly to the site with conventional earth-moving equipment, a process that saved an estimated $1 million over customary dragline dredging, dewatering and multiple handling.

Above the cap, a two-foot layer of sand and topsoil formed a growing medium for grass. A total of three million cubic yards of earth were moved to shape, cap and promote grass growth on the golf course.

Additionally, an area of wetlands on three holes of the Port course had to be moved to another location, so, near both 18th holes, designers created another area of approximately six acres that overlooks Lake Calumet and is planted with high-quality wetland vegetation. Anthony Ianello, director of the Illinois International Port District, notes that this extensive use of low-cost, locally available materials minimized air pollution and truck traffic.

And, concrete from the former construction rubble landfill was recycled for use in roadways, golf-cart paths, embankment erosion control and building foundations. Excess materials were sold to other contractors with the profit applied to construction costs.

The course is watered by a special pumping system that draws water from Lake Calumet, while protecting against Zebra Mussel infestation. At the same time, the nature of the sanitary portion of the landfill and the need to contain runoff from this portion required construction of a drainage system to keep runoff waters from this area away from adjacent levels, wetlands and the lake.

To solve this problem, runoff is routed to seven collection points and returned through the Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s sewer system back to a wastewater treatment plant for processing.

As for the grounds, Harborside’s treeless links-style design was chosen because roots are not allowed to breach the clay seal. Both courses are extensively bunkered, with bent grass tees, fairways and greens.

Bluegrass was planted in the primary rough, and fescue w as used in the deep rough.

The 456-acre center, which features two 18-hole championship courses, plus a 58-acre practice facility and a John Jacobs Golf Academy, brings a new recreational dimension to an aging industrial area on Chicago’s southeast side.

The facility won top honors in the 1996 Superior Achievement for Excellence in Environmental Engineering competition sponsored by the American Academy of Environmental Engineering, which cited Harborside for addressing “the major criteria of the competition … most important was the manner in which it met environmental and ecological concerns and contributed to an improved environment, using available materials to reverse perceived abuses and achieved significant cost reduction and control in course construction.”