Wolf Creek Dam renovation on target for Summer 2014 completion date

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This file photo was taken late last year while the work platform on the upstream side of Critical Area 1 was being prepared. The platform has been widened, a guardwall and guiding trench for the hydromill are complete and work is about to begin on installation of the protective concrete embankment wall.

February 5, 2012

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus Commonwealth Journal The Commonwealth Journal Sun Feb 05, 2012, 07:00 AM EST

Somerset —

Rehabilitation of Wolf Creek Dam “ ... is on schedule ... maybe a little ahead of schedule,” according to project manager David Hendrix.

“It is our intent to return Lake Cumberland to normal operation by summer 2014,” Hendrix told the Commonwealth Journal Tuesday. However, he added a disclaimer: “Something could happen to change that.”

Hendrix said the work platform alongside Critical Area 1 has been widened, a guardwall has been installed and a three-foot-deep trench is in place as a guide for the hydromill.

“We’re ready to go in and start installing the protective concrete embankment wall (in Critical Area 1),” said Hendrix.

Critical Area 1 is the cavern-laced area near the juncture of the concrete and earthen sections of the dam. This trouble spot originally would not accept grout and drilling in the area caused movement of materials deep inside the dam. This has been the chief culprit for about a year’s delay in the rehabilitation project.

The protective concrete embankment wall extends from the work platform to the base of the dam. Drilling is done through this concrete to keep from disturbing the earthen section of the dam while the permanent barrier wall is installed. In other words, the 50-inch drill bit sinks through the concrete protective wall and then into the limestone rock beneath the dam. The drilling action doesn’t disturb the earthen dam.

Most of the permanent barrier wall is created by drilling overlapping holes, each 50 inches in diameter, through the permanent barrier wall to some 100 feet into the limestone base of the dam. The holes are filled with concrete.

The permanent barrier wall through the some 4,000-foot-long earthen section of the dam is about 65 percent complete, Hendrix said. The project as a whole is about 70 percent complete, he noted.

Target completion date is December 2013. However, Hendrix has said several times that the project could be completed a month or so before or a month or so after that date.

Barring an unforeseen problem, the current plan is to have the dam repaired in time for spring rains in 2014 to fill the lake ahead of the summer vacation season.

Lake Cumberland has been held as closely as possible to 680 feet above sea level, about 40 feet below normal, since January 2007. The lower level was maintained to facilitate repair work at the dam and ease pressure on the seepage-plagued structure.

Recent heavy rains have raised the lake above the optimum level. Hendrix said the higher water level created a traffic issue at the dam because the lower access road below the main work platform was under water.

This problem is solved, Hendrix said. The lower access road has been raised to the 705 feet above sea level and will eventually be at the 710 feet.

Wolf Creek Dam has had a seepage problem since the gates were closed in December 1950. A near catastrophe occurred during the late 1960s when two large sinkholes developed in the electrical grid area at the base of the dam and muddy water was observed in the tailrace.

Extensive grouting was done to stabilize the dam and a barrier wall was inserted during the 1970s. The original wall, not deep enough nor long enough, did not solve the problem, and the dam in 2005 was declared in high risk of failure. The current $584 million rehabilitation will permanently repair the dam, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

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Wolf Creek Dam renovation on target for Summer 2014 completion date

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