March 2001 - Property Owner's Club (Apple Canyon Lake)

Apple Canyon Lake (ACL) is a resort development approximately 25 miles east of Galena, IL. With a good sized lake for boating and fishing, trails for walking and riding, and a tough nine hole golf course, ACL is a very popular vacation and retirement destination. In early spring 2000, the Apple Canyon Lake Property Owner's Association (ACLPOA) requested proposals for replacing the existing railroad tie retaining walls and gardens bordering the pool deck at their complex with precast "Versa-Lok" concrete blocks. The approximately 25 year old railroad tie walls were settling and rotting away (please see the "before" photos at the bottom of the page).

The proposal request required each bidder to develop a unique design for the new retaining wall system incorporating planting areas into the precast concrete block walls. The proposal request also stipulated that the entire project be completed by the end of May 2000 so that the pool could open for Memorial Day. When bid day arrived, Timp Landscaping was the only company to submit a bid. Whether it was the size of the project, the design requirement, the time limit or a combination of all three, since we were the only company with the resources to complete the project on time and within ACL's budget, we were awarded the bid.

As you can see from the blueprints, the new walls include multi-level planting areas, concave curves, convex curves and sloping changes in elevation. Because of the complexity of the project, ACL brought in Greg Stauder & Co. as their consulting engineer. In addition to Greg's company, we worked with Dan Reimer (General Manager of ACL), Bill Gee (ACLPOA board of directors representative) and Leroy Krippendorf (ACL maintenance manager). Our primary workers at the site were Brandon and Jeff. However, because of the large size of the project, almost every worker at Timp Landscaping added something to the project (I had the most demanding job - taking the pictures).

The crew's first job was to remove the existing railroad tie walls. Although a backhoe and skid loader helped a little, basically this phase of the project required a lot of grunt work. Once the old walls were gone, the soil beneath and behind the walls had to be excavated so that compacted stone could be installed as a foundation for the new walls. With the soil excavated and the compacted stone installed, ACL's representatives and our people marked the final location of the wall system.

The installation of the walls required Versa-Lok block, drainage tile, drainage stone and a soil stabilization fabric grid every few layers. The top foot of volume behind the walls was filled with topsoil and mulch for planting.

We would like to thank Dan Reimer and everyone at ACL for their help with this project and for allowing us to show you their walls.

PLEASE CLICK ON PICS TO ENLARGE.

Link to Versa-Lok website.