Michigan, Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy issued the following announcement on Dec. 8.
Emergency construction work has started this week at the remaining portion of the Edenville Dam and along the Tobacco River in Gladwin and Midland counties to protect residents, infrastructure and natural resources from future flooding events downstream of the failed dam.
Area residents will notice heavy equipment from Fisher Contracting Co. performing excavation work below the dam while other crews will be working inside the Tobacco River spillway to prepare it for being lowered by 21 feet, which will result in a drop in water levels of up to 13 feet. Lowering the spillway crest will alleviate concerns about the stability of the remaining dam embankment, restore natural river flow to the Tobacco River, reverse negative impacts on natural resources and seek to avoid another major flooding event when winter snow melts and spring rainstorms arrive.
Fisher Contracting expects to have a crew of approximately 15 working six days a week for the next 2 1/2 months to complete the project, using equipment that includes a 100-ton crane, a 50-ton excavator and a 30-ton excavator on a barge, a bulldozer and 40-ton off-road trucks.
The $2.3 million contract for the time-sensitive work was approved by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Department of Transportation (MDOT) after Boyce Hydro Power LLC, the dam’s owner, refused in September to undertake the critically needed safety measures. Federal funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is paying 75 percent of the cost while 25 percent will come from funds allocated by the legislature for dam work.
EGLE and MDOT hired the AECOM engineering firm in October to design the best solution that can be completed on a short timeframe by late winter. The Edenville Dam is still classified as a High Hazard Dam, which means that another collapse could result in severe downstream flooding impacts and even a loss of life.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Michigan, Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy
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