Corps of Engineers head to discuss dam project Thursday

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
Commonwealth Journal

July 23, 2008 06:40 am

— The top man in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Nashville District will be in Pulaski County this week to give an update on repairs at Wolf Creek Dam and talk about Lake Cumberland.
LTC Bernard R. Lindstrom, commander of the Nashville District, will meet with marina operators and tourism officials at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Somerset Resource Manager’s Office on Boat Dock Road. Local media representatives have been invited to attend.
Lindstrom, who succeeded Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt last July as head of the Corps’ Nashville District, is expected to talk about difficulties closing the initial grout curtain in the earthen section of the mile-long dam, inserting a diaphragm barrier to permanently solve the seepage problem and hopefully project how long Lake Cumberland will be kept at lower than normal levels.
As district engineer, Lindstrom is responsible for directing all water resource activities of the Corps throughout the Cumberland River Basin. Prior to his arrival at the Nashville District, he served as construction management chief of the 18th Theater Army Engineers Brigade, Heidelberg, Germany.
Wolf Creek Dam, completed in December 1950, was built on a base of porous limestone rock and has leaked throughout its history. The Corps apparently realized in March 2005 that uncontrolled seepage in Wolf Creek Dam would require a major rehabilitation of the earthen structure. An independent panel of experts classified Wolf Creek Dam in high risk of failure.
The cost to permanently fix the dam is estimated at $309 million. (The most recent alternative estimate being used on the Corps’ web site is $317.1 million). Roemhildt told the Commonwealth Journal last year that the proposed diaphragm wall would make the dam safe through the end of this century.
Lake Cumberland was lowered 43 feet in January 2007 to ease pressure on the dam and an accelerated grouting program was begun. Grouting is pumping chemically enhanced liquid concrete into the dam structure to fill cavities in the base of limestone karst.
Corps officials have said two grout curtains, one on each side of a planned concrete diaphragm wall, will be pumped into the dam. The lake level will be evaluated when the initial grout curtain is finished. However, problems have developed with “closing” the first curtain near where the earthen section of the dam joins the concrete monolith. The Corps recently announced there will be no change in the lake level this season.
A contract to insert the diaphragm wall is currently scheduled to be let this month. The new diaphragm will be deeper and longer than the first concrete wall inserted in the dam during the 1970s to stop a more serious leak that developed in the late 1960s.
Lindstrom’s visit to Somerset is hosted by Lake Cumberland Association Inc., made up of marinas and tourism organizations in the Lake Cumberland area. Carolyn Mounce, executive director of Somerset-Pulaski Convention and Visitors Bureau; John Carter, director of marketing for Russell County Tourism; and Van Back, an official with the Kentucky Department of Travel, arranged the session with the Corps commander.
Mounce said the public is invited to the session at the Corps’ Lake Cumberland office located at 855 Boat Dock Road. Boat Dock Road turns east off U.S. 27 at stoplight No. 29.

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