Somerset —
Engineers say Wolf Creek Dam appears to be stable and rehabilitation is expected to resume next week in a 600-foot area where work has been suspended since March. A preliminary report from laboratory tests of samples taken from a critical area in the dam indicates no deep instability within the earthen structure. Engineers with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also have concluded that widening surface cracks in the roadway across the dam were caused by movement of the sheetpile wall, a steel interlocking structure used by contractors to hold vertical dirt on the dam side of the main work platform. As a result of the preliminary findings, contractors next week will be allowed to resume grouting and preparation of a work platform in Critical Area 1. This critical area is one of two in the 4,000-foot-long earthen section of the dam where grouting has not been effective. Apparent earth movement in Critical Area 1 and cracks in the roadway triggered a work suspension in a 600-foot section in March. The work suspension was extended through August 31. Fred Tucker, public affairs officer for the Corps’ Nashville District, said General John W. Peabody, the Corps division commander in Cincinnati, was briefed August 23 on the preliminary report and that he (Peabody) concurred with Corps engineers that there is no deep instability in the earthen section of the dam. A final report will be issued, “ ... probably in a month or two,” according to Mike Zocolla, chief of the Corps’ Design Division. David Hendrix, project manager, said there has been no change in the December 2012 projected completion date for the dam rehabilitation project. However, Hendrix cautioned that this estimate could change based on new information. Wolf Creek Dam, plagued with seepage problems since completed in late 1950, was declared in high risk of failure early in 2005. The Corps decided at that point a major rehabilitation of the dam was necessary. The lake was lowered more than 40 feet in January 2007 to ease pressure on the structure and facilitate the repair work. A $584 million contract was awarded to Treviicos-Soletanche JV, a French-Italian firm, to insert a concrete diaphragm wall through the length of the earthen section of the dam and about 100 feet into the limestone bedrock. Corps engineers say this will be a permanent fix for the mile-long dam that impounds Lake Cumberland.Local News
Related Photos
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Grouting and work platform preparation will resume next week in the 600-foot section of Wolf Creek Dam where work has been suspended since March. Laboratory tests of dirt samples indicate that there is no deep instability in the earthen section of the dam. The critical area where work was suspended is at the juncture of the earthen and concrete sections.
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Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past. -
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.
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