Here's some pictures of a little project I've been laying out in my spare time showing how it's been affected by the high water on the Ohio River. For reference, the lock is on the Illinois side of the river, the project is on the Ky. side. I'll try to answer any questions if anybody is interested.
I am doing the layout for the earthwork at Smithland Lock and Dam on the Ohio River for the construction of a 3 turbine hydroelectric facility. The initial phase involves constructing a coffer dam to elevation 347.5 around the site, then excavating a hole down to a floor at ele. 241. The top of the cells you see on the existing dam are at ele. 326. Right now the excavation is down to about el. 290. The structure you can see in the first photos in the middle of the earthwork in the narrow channel was a test project the Corps did a few years ago testing some new type of weir design for possible use on the Olmstead Dam which is a few miles downstream of theis one.
Project began back in the spring of 2010, and these are monthly aerials showing the progress. As you can see in the last few, the river has been a problem since March. At that point it got over the access road by about 5 ft., but then receded. Just as we began to rebuild it, the next rise again shut it down, and eventually the hole had to be flooded to prevent a possible breach in the levee. Turns out that the river never got high enough to overtop the levee, but the prediction was to get right to the top of it, so they opened up the emergency flooding channel in the last couple of pictures. 
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011-1
March 2011-2
April 2011-1
April 2011-2
May 2011-1
May 2011-2
Wow! Thanks for sharing that
It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature. She'll get you sooner or later. And she did.
A few questions from a high and dry flatlander. The portion of the dam closest to your project appears to be a series of circles. Are these something like concrete silos filled with rock? Is the new power plant to replace a different one or to supply growing demand? How about providing the lat/long?
Wow! Thanks for sharing that
37°10'10.20" N 88°25'32.14" W , I think, from Google Earth.
Wow! Thanks for sharing that
That's about it, Doug
The round structures are cells filled with stone and concrete to form the low part of the existing dam. Water over el.326 flows over it. Normal pool is 324, normal tailwater is about 310. This is a new facility, the original dam is just a navigation/flood control structure. Hydro plant being built by AMP-Ohio.
In the next to last photo, you can see the Cumberland River entering the Ohio from the upper left, Smithland, Ky. is just above that intersection.
Here's a pic I took Friday at Ky. Dam, where I'm also doing some layout. It's been running full flow like this since May 2, and Ky. Lake behind it reached record levels by about 3.5 feet at that. Ky Dam is on the Tennessee River about 10 miles south of Smithland Dam. Barkley Dam on the Cumberland is about 1 mile east of Ky. Dam, don't have any pics of it.
How long you reckon it will take to pump that water out?
Interesting post!
thanks for sharing,
chr.
I've heard talk of 2 months, I guess it depends on how many pumps they can round up. There are dewatering wells in the excavation to take care of ground water, not sure how much good they will do though.
Update
Just heard they are only going to allow the water to be lowered 1 ft./day, so it's gonna take about 2 months.