HRBRRD ASKS THAT BECAUSE OF SAFETY CONCERNS YOU DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VISIT THE CONSTRUCTION SITE AT THE INDIAN LAKE DAM – INSTEAD SCROLL DOWN FOR A LINK TO RECENT PHOTOS
From John Callaghan, Executive Director, Hudson River Black River Regulating District
Considerable progress is being made on the Indian Lake Dam rehabilitation project. To date, efforts to fully seal gaps in the stone masonry structure by injecting grout have concluded successfully.
A new pedestrian walkway over the dam’s spillway for worker access has been installed, increasing levels of safety for Regulating District personnel. The previously inoperable logway sluice gate has been replaced with a new, operable gate which will be instrumental in facilitating subsequent gate replacement, as well as enhancing water management capabilities over the long term.
Perhaps the most critical component of the project from a structural stability standpoint, new post-tensioned anchors on the spillway structure have also been installed. Installation of anchors that are attached to bedrock at existing dams is a common practice to address structural concerns related to the potential for overturning and/or sliding. This aspect of the project is critical to ensuring that the Indian Lake Dam is fully compliant with modern, NYSDEC dam safety standards, despite the structure’s advanced age. Work to install similar anchors in the dam’s embankment section has also been completed.
Currently, crews are working a complete a new concrete extension to an embankment wall which will help accommodate a new “flattened” embankment slope on the dam’s downstream side, consistent with NYSDEC’s dam safety standards. In other words, the vast majority of work associated with noted deficiencies by NYSDEC dam safety have been, or are in the process of being, completed.
The most significant “emergent” work to materialize over the course of the project has been the gatehouse foundation. Once divers accessed the interior of the chambers below the gatehouse during construction and made detailed physical and visual observations, as well as underwater videography, the voids in this foundation were more extensive that the pre-project investigatory work (observations made around the exterior of the gatehouse foundation) had revealed. Consultation with the design engineer and NYSDEC dam safety produced an approach where pre-cast concrete panels will surround the gatehouse foundation, enhancing levels of watertight integrity. This additional “new scope” work will push the substantial completion date for the project to the end of this calendar year, or to the beginning of 2026.
Importantly, water levels will continue to be managed as normal during this period.
The Regulating District continues to appreciate its ongoing partnership with the Indian Lake Association and looks forward to continuing a dialogue about how elevations are managed, especially in the fall of the year. Our sole focus at present is completing the project successfully, and ensuring that the structure can continue to function and provide important local recreational, ecological, and economic benefits – as well as critically important downstream flooding protection – for generations to come.
Here is a link to recent construction images: https://youtu.be/DRMpAKOfM_o
