By Trent Moore
The Cullman Times
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With work expected to begin within the next 12 months, city officials hope to hire a property acquisition team soon to start acquiring real estate for the Duck River dam project.
The City of Cullman intends to build a dam in the Duck River watershed to create a 640-acre lake and a six-mile pipeline with a 32-million-gallon-per-day capacity. The $70 million secondary reservoir would resemble the one at Lake Catoma, currently the area’s sole water source.
Project manager Dale Greer said the city utility board hopes to hire a lead surveyor, real estate property management director, title work attorney and overall construction project manager as soon as possible.
The most pressing issue is assembling a property acquisition team to gather the 1,200 needed acres from approximately 94 property owners, Greer said.
“We’re getting that in place so we can get in touch with landowners and update the appraisals,” he said. “We really need to get some people in here quickly, so they can dig into the information.”
Much of the initial data gathering was done nearly a decade ago when city officials had first planned to build the dam, before it was held up by environmental lawsuits in recent years — lawsuits that have since been resolved.
Steve Newton, with the CH2M Hill engineering firm, said construction could begin in approximately eight months, once an initial 400 acres are purchased.
“We may be able to go out to bid by spring of next year, then start moving dirt soon after,” he said. “That’s really where the dam footprint will be, and it will allow stage one prep work to construct the spillway and diversion tunnel.”
City officials are also in the process of updating an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers that will make CH2M Hill the engineer of record for the Duck River project.
Newton said that change was made to expedite the planning and paperwork process.
“We should have this [updating the plans] aspect finished by the end of the year, as opposed to taking eight months had the Corps. done it all alone,” he said.
It is expected to cost $220,000 to revamp the plans, and that cost will be split between the Corps. of Engineers and CH2M Hill.
With the city’s long-term permit to build Duck River set to expire in November 2016, Newton said time is of the essence to get the project off the ground.
“The bottom line is that we’re still okay in meeting that November 2016 date,” he said. “That may sound like it’s a long way away, but it’s not, when you’re talking about building a dam.”
Every major wholesale city water customer has signed new contracts through the length of the proposed Duck River plan, except the Cullman County Commission. The signed parties account for approximately 53 percent of area water users. The Vinemont, Anon and West Point (VAW) Water Authority, Walter, East Cullman, Cullman water department and Johnson’s Crossing Water Authorities have all agreed to purchase water from the city until 2040.
* Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 220.
