CULLMAN —
Site work is happening, right now, for the Duck River Dam.
It’s taken since the mid-1990s to get here. Reaching across more than a decade of planning, a handful of city council administrations and three Cullman mayors: but it’s official.
The first trees came down early Monday afternoon at the Jerrell Smith farm, just off County Road 1640, in Cullman County. The site will eventually become the base of the dam, once tree removal and prep work is complete.
The dam project is being spearheaded by the City of Cullman, via the Cullman Utilities Board, with plans to build a 640-acre lake with a 32-million-gallon-per-day capacity in northeast Cullman County to serve as a secondary water source.
“We’re so glad to see the dam get underway,” Cullman Mayor Max Townson said. “It’s great to know we will have an alternate water source.”
The project has been permitted since the 1990s, but was stalled for several years due to environmental lawsuits that have since been resolved.
Phase I of the dam’s construction, which includes the site clearing and tree removal, was recently awarded to Birmingham-based contractor Brasfield and Gorrie for $4.3 million.
Phase I includes surveying, access road construction, stump and debris removal within the dam footprint, geotechnical explorations, soil removal and rock excavation. The entire phase is expected to take approximately eight months to complete.
Though the project has been in the works for years, Townson said it became a major priority following the drought of 2007 which saw the city’s sole water source Lake Catoma dip to dangerously low levels, forcing stringent water control guidelines until the reserve could be refilled.
“It’s really a relief to know it’s finally coming to fruition, and an even greater relief knowing what we went thorough in 2007 with the worst drought we’ve had in years,” he said. “We are going forward so the future generations, as well as this generation, will have an adequate water supply for personal use, for prosperity, and for industrial development and retail development.”
* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 220.
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Crews work to clear trees from a property on County Road 1640, at what will eventually be the foot of the Duck River Dam. Trent Moore
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Work is officially underway on the Duck River dam
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