Reservation Golf Course

Polk County, Florida

Project Description/Services

Madrid Engineering Group, Inc. (MEG) completed a preliminary remediation plan to deal with the very soft clays at the Reservation Development. The parcel is located adjacent to State Road 27 across the highway from the Wal-Mart Supercenter and located midway between the towns of Lakeland and Mulberry. The existing golf course was developed on reclaimed mined lands. The spoil pits had been filled with phosphatic clays during the mining process. During reclamation, the area was reclaimed to allow golf course traffic but much of the area is unsuitable for building construction in its present state. It is the owner’s intention to take advantage of the parcel’s prime location and to develop it as a commercial and residential property.

The first phase of the project involved delineating the areas of the challenging soil types, in particular the phosphatic clays. This was accomplished drilling 20 SPT borings 40 feet deep. The soils were then tested in the Madrid Engineering Group’s soils lab to determine the suitability of the soils for construction. These tests included, natural moisture content, percent passing the #200 mesh sieve, Atterberg limits (plasticity), organic content and consolidation tests. In the adjacent aerial the green areas indicate ground that is acceptable for construction and the red and orange areas indicated soils that will need intensive remediation.