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200 North Castle Heights Ave. Suite 300
Lebanon, TN 37087
Phone: 615-444-3647
Fax: 615-444-1515
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| Army Corp of Engineers Wolf Creek Dam Rehabilitation Project |
Wolf Creek Dam is on the Cumberland River,
near Jamestown, Kentucky. The dam was originally
built in the 1940’s for flood damage reduction and
for hydropower production. It was completed in
1952. Lake Cumberland was created by the dam
and is the largest manmade reservoir east of the
Mississippi River. Wolf Creek Dam is over a mile
long and provides a maximum flood storage capacity
of over 6 Million acre-feet (1 acre-foot= 1 acre,
1 foot deep or 325,850 gallons). The lake’s flood
storage is over 40% of the total flood storage in
the Cumberland River basin and the project produces
22% of the hydropower generated on the
Cumberland River. Recreational opportunities
abound at the lake, which receives more visitors
(over 4 million) each year than Yellowstone Park.
The following is an excerpt from The Wolf Creek Dam Article located on wikipedia.org See the entire article here.
Seepage Problems
In 1968, signs of seepage problems within Wolf Creek Dam's earthen embankments and foundation were discovered. Sinkholes appeared at the downstream toe of the dam, and muddy water was observed in the dam's outflow channel. The seepage problems were traced to the karst geology of the region which allows for the dissolution of limestone in the dam's foundation. Solution channels caused by this process allow piping to occur, which adds to the rate of erosion in the foundation.
A short-term solution of grouting the existing seepage channels was employed immediately; grouting in the dam foundation ran from 1968 to 1970 and is credited with saving the dam. Construction of a long-term solution began in 1975 in the form of a seepage cut-off wall. A concrete diaphragm wall was chosen as the appropriate cut-off solution and extended through the earth embankment into the rock foundation. The cut-off wall was completed in 1979.
Current Status
Continuous monitoring of the dam shows that seepage problems have not been completely alleviated. Seepage has likely found new paths around, and possibly through, the cutoff wall currently in place. In recent years, increased seepage rates have been detected.
Since March 2005, around the time when increased seepage rates were discovered, Lake Cumberland has been held at nearly constant water levels to reduce the stresses placed on the structure and its foundation.
In late January 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed the dam under a 'high risk' for failure designation, along with Center Hill Dam in Tennessee, both of which are two major dams upstream from Nashville, Tennessee.
Additional Information Is Available Here:
Presentation About The Rehabilitation Project
Informational pamphlet from The Corp of Engineers
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