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Wolf Creek Dam Repairs Suspended

Foundation Movement Causes Concern

POSTED: 8:49 pm CST March 10, 2010
UPDATED: 12:45 pm CST March 11, 2010

Repair work is being temporarily suspended along a section of the Wolf Creek Dam in Jamestown, Ky.

Related: Watch This Story

The Corps is strengthening the dam, which is leaking. Contractors are injecting grout into the holes in the limestone foundation and building a new concrete barrier wall.

The Corps announced Wednesday it has partially suspended repair work because several monitoring instruments have picked up movement in the foundation and increased hydrostatic pressure.

The movement was recorded in the area around a cave where grout was being injected.

"It doesn't make sense to go forward blind," said Wolf Creek Dam's Project Manager David Hendrix. "We just had to step back and take a look at it."

The movements were measured at a place where the earthen embankment ties into the concrete portion of the dam. It’s an area the Corps calls "critical area one."

The Corps said it's the same area that has been the major source of seepage during the life of the dam.

"Every instrument reading that's not, quote, normal, we treat it with concern," Hendrix said.

Work is being suspended along a 600-foot stretch of the concrete barrier wall. The Corps said it doesn't need to make any changes to the level of Lake Cumberland.

Three years ago, the Corps lowered the lake as an emergency precaution after its own studies showed that if the dam were to fail, it would cause flooding all along the Cumberland River, including through downtown Nashville.


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