Dam model provides engineers “sandbox” to learn before Rough River Dam Safety Modification project construction

Rough River Dam in west-central Kentucky is entering one of its most significant construction periods in its more than 65-year history. The U.S. Army Co… Rough River Dam in west-central Kentucky is entering one of its most significant construction periods in its more than 65-year history. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District is undertaking a major dam safety modification project that will construct an entirely new outlet works and ultimately install a full-depth concrete cutoff wall through the embankment and underlying karst foundation. The project combines large-scale excavation, underwater blasting, tunneling, mass concrete construction, hydraulic structures, foundationgroutingand deep cutoff wall construction at an operating flood risk management reservoir.

The workrepresentsthe culmination of more than two decades of investigation, risk assessment, interim riskreductionand design. Preparation for the project included studying the dam in a 57-feet wide and 100-feet long model at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, known as ERDC, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Using a model of this size was instrumental in the planning of the work involved in the Rough River Dam Safety Modification project, said Jeremy Sharp, a hydraulic engineer at ERDC, who served as the principal investigator of the Rough River Physical Model study. “The Rough River physical model was part ofan outlet works study to confirm the performance of a proposed design for