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  • Cullman Utilities Board Chairman Wayne Fuller speaks with Duck River Dam property acquisition coordinator Mandell Tillman at a Tuesday meeting. Trent Moore

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July 27, 2011

City considers duck river dam construction options

Officials eyeing roller compacted concrete

By Trent Moore The Cullman Times

CULLMAN — With land acquisition under way, city officials are now undertaking a study to determine if a potentially cheaper and simpler construction technique will be viable to build the proposed Duck River Dam.

The Cullman Utilities Board hopes to use roller compacted concrete to construct the $68 million dam, a more recent method that was not commonly used when the original plans were drawn up more than a decade ago.

Engineers believe the approach could cut costs, reduce the dam footprint, minimize the design and provide a more stable environment during construction.

But, before starting, officials have to be absolutely sure the location is suited for that type of construction. To test the soil and bedrock, the board approved plans to have 20 more borings done in the area. The work is expected to cost approximately $100,000.

“Right now we’re trying to make the roller compacted concrete decision, because all the decisions seem to hinge on that,” project owner’s representative Bill St. John said. “What we want to do now is accelerate testing to see if the materials out there are aggregate to using roller compacted concrete. We think the best thing is to do that now rather than later. That would keep us from spinning our wheels.”

The board had originally planned to have the extra borings done once a contractor was on site, though engineers now believe the project would benefit by pushing up that timetable.

“We need to make absolutely sure it will support roller compacted concrete,” CH2M Hill engineer Tom Harwell said. “We’re tying to get that moved up, so we can make those decisions now. We’re just making sure the rock we think is there is there before we start with roller compacted concrete.”

The borings will check the soil at the site of the proposed dam for fractured rock, which would not be conducive to using roller compacted concrete.

Four of the 110 required parcels in the watershed have been purchased by the utilities board, and 16 offers are currently pending. Property acquisition coordinator Mandell Tillman said he believes all 22 parcels needed for phase I could be purchased as soon as next month.

“We very well could have every phase I tract in the very near future,” he said. “Once we get through phase I we expect the rest of the process to really fly.”

Though property acquisition can be contentious at times, Tillman noted there have been no major issues up to this point in the process.

“No property owners have refused to sell,” he said. “The only thing we’ve had is one property owner making an unreasonably high counter-offer.”

Once complete, the Duck River project is expected to create a 640-acre lake with a 32-million-gallon-per-day capacity in northeast Cullman County, providing a secondary water source in addition to Lake Catoma.



* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 220.

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