LaDOTD reviews anticipated Turkey Creek Dam improvements | Local/State Headlines | hannapub.com

2023-03-02 01:29:34 By : Mr. David Zhong

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LaDOTD reviews anticipated Turkey Creek Dam improvements | Local/State Headlines | hannapub.com

A project designed to repair Turkey Creek Dam is forthcoming, according to Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD) representatives. 

Officials met with community leaders and citizens Feb.15 at LDOTD Chase District office to review plans.

In 2021, a leak at the dam was discovered after water levels dropped three to almost four feet at the popular fishing spot. Upon inspection, Ricky Roberts, Turkey Creek Lake Association president, discovered swirling currents above a 48-inch culvert with a slide gate control used to move water from Turkey Creek to Boeuf River. The currents indicated holes in the culvert constantly leaking water.

The dam was temporarily repaired in late 2021, but an overhaul of the south Franklin Parish structure was being hatched by LDOTD officials, according to David Dupree, assistant district administer at the Chase office.

State officials are currently performing hydraulic tests and a semi-quantitive risk analysis (SQRA) which is Stage 1 in the $10.2 million project. The project is titled “Turkey Creek Retention Improvements and Critical Infrastructure Hardening.”

According to DOTD documentation, SQRA is a “quick evaluation of risk for prioritizing actions.” SQRA performs a high-level screening for potential failure modes to assign likelihood of failure associated consequence level.

“(The hydraulic test) figures how much water the dam takes and an idea of how big a structure needs to be to handle that amount of water,” Dupree said.

In the project’s Stage 1A, environmental permitting and coordination is set to begin in 2023. Funding is scheduled for Stage 2 also in 2023. Stage 3 is the final design of the project, and Stage 4 is the letting process. Both stages 3 and 4 are scheduled for 2025.

Construction of the new dam is set for 2025 to 2027, according to LDOTD documents.

Turkey Creek Dam was constructed in 1953 and was 4,500-feet long with a 40-feet tall embankment. The primary spillway of the structure was a 500-feet wide concrete ogee spillway. The outlet was worked by a six-feet by six-feet sluice gate cast into the spillway. According to LDOTD, the last known operation of the gate was 2010.

There were “several leaks in the concrete spillway,” according to a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries report titled “2013 Turkey Creek Lake Vegetation Control Plan.”

LDOTD assumed responsibility of the operation and maintenance of 19 control structures, including Turkey Creek dam.

At pool stage, Turkey Creek has a surface area of 3,845 acres with an average depth of six feet and a watershed of 163 square miles.

The $10.2 million used to repair Turkey Creek Dam was part of the $1.2 billion line of credit in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) mitigation funds for flood risk reduction priority throughout Louisiana.

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LaDOTD reviews anticipated Turkey Creek Dam improvements | Local/State Headlines | hannapub.com

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