There have been improvements at the Lake Gladewater dam through regular monitoring and ongoing maintenance the past several years, but there’s far more to do.
With everyone getting on the same page (and initial funding inbound) the next big task is to formulate a plan. It’s a priority for city officials and practical steps are ahead.
The most recent dam inspection wrapped up in November, and it showed one key aspect hasn’t changed since the last engineer’s examination in March ’24.
“In both of those inspections, it was classified as a ‘Poor’ condition dam,” Schaumburg & Polk’s Andrew Wright reminded council members March 19.
Such structures fall into one of three categories for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: Good, Fair or Poor.
“Poor means there’s major deficiencies that if not addressed would lead to a failure,” Wright said.
Constructed in 1951-1952, the dam creates approximately 6,900 acre-feet of water, serving as the city’s sole source.
“It’s a ‘High Hazard’ structure, meaning the probability of the loss of life in the event of failure is more than seven people and it impacts economic activities.”
That’s not new information, and the label opens key avenues for public funding assistances. City officials, local officeholders and their counterparts at the regional, state and national level are generally in sync – the dam’s aging, it’s deteriorating, it needs work and it’s not going to be cheap.
“This particular structure has five or six major issues that are noted in the report,” Wright said. “Any one of those has led to a failure in the past on other structures.”
“The major area of concern to me is the service spillway.”
Learn more from the latest report here.
(Above: The Lake Gladewater Dam’s concrete spillway is a “major area of concern” for engineers due to numerous issues documented in the latest dam inspection report.)