Wednesday, January 25, 2023

$1.5 Billion Lake Dike Rehab Completed

CLEWISTON, Fla.-Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District (USACE) hosted a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate completion of construction for the Herbert Hoover Dike Rehabilitation.

“Safety is our number one priority. The goal of this project is to protect human life while reducing the risks of impact to the way of life, the economy, and the environment of the communities around the lake,” said Col. James Booth, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District Commander. “This construction project has been a monumental undertaking that started in 2005. Corps team members and construction contractors, as well as the supporting staff from Federal, Tribal and State agencies, have dedicated a significant part of their careers to this project, and I thank them for their efforts.”

“This structure has withstood powerful storms for decades, but with tens of thousands of people living in its shadow, an upgrade to modern standards was long overdue,” said U.S. Sugar Vice President for Strategic Environmental Affairs Michael Ellis. “Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, farmers and all of our local residents now have the peace of mind that the risk of a dike failure has been significantly lowered.”

This event was dedicated to all of the people who lost their lives in the hurricanes of 1926, 1928, 1947 and 2022.

Herbert Hoover Dike Rehabilitation by the numbers:

$1.5 Billion dollars was invested in the rehabilitation to date, from the original $1.8B total estimate.
The dike consists of 143-miles of embankment, with 60 structural penetrations including five inlet spillways, five outlet spillways, nine pump stations, nine navigation locks, and 32 water control structures.
More than 56 miles of cutoff wall was constructed through the most vulnerable sections of embankment.
28 water control structures (culverts) were replaced with new structures. Four of the structures are located on the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Brighton Reservation. They had barrels from 7 to 10 feet in diameter and many had multiple barrels.
1 culvert was removed, and 3 filled in
The embankment was armored at several locations, with one located on Brighton Reservation, to prevent downstream slope erosion in case water ever overtops the dike during a storm event.

All in all, the Corps awarded a total of 42 construction contracts for risk-reduction features, including cut-off wall, water control structures, and embankment armoring, since 2005.

As a result, the Dam Safety Action Classification rating is expected to greatly improve when complete evaluation of the project occurs in the spring of 2023.

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