Extremely Wet 2013 impedes Dam Repair Progress, but fills Lake Quickly

A Good Reason for Dam Safety Legislation - Lake Berkeley perched 90 feet above The River District Subdivision in Berkeley Lake.  The Chattahoochee River is behind the houses just beyond the tree line. 

Outlet of Berkeley Lake Dam's Low Level Siphon Drain. The lake recently reached the drain pipe's crest. Contractor JM Wilkerson turned off the valve so the lake could continue to fill.

Berkeley Lake, Georgia. Water levels in Lake Berkeley have been rising quickly due to the wet year the metro Atlanta area has received. Thru July, the metro area has received 7 inches more rain than it did in all of 2012.  The weather has impeded the contractor's work as he has been sodding the dam and making repairs to the dam's toe drain, which has partially filled with sediment due to the rain. The lake is currently about ten feet below it's normal pool elevation of 974.4, but has only filled about 50% of its volume. 

Berkeley Lake Construction Progress

Berkeley Lake Dam - Excavation of existing internal drain

Berkeley Lake, Georgia.  JM Wilkerson Construction, Inc. began excavating the existing internal drain and overburden in late April.  Excavation for a new low level drain will began late last week.  The project is on schedule and completion is planned for January 2013.

Doraville Stream Restoration Making Good Progress

Last year, the City of Doraville hired Clark Patterson Lee of Suwanee, Georgia (@CPLDesignProf) and Wetlands and Ecological Consultants of Woodstock, Georgia to design a restoration to 933 feet of an unnamed tributary to Nancy Creek, which runs through the City's Bernard Halpern Park.

Over the last 40 years, the stream had responded in the typical manner when, through land development, a watershed becomes highly urbanized.  Rather than most of the rainfall infiltrating into the ground, it now leaves as surface runoff.  This subjects the stream to an "urbanization" process that scours out the bed and banks, dislodges sediment, and wreaks havoc on the stream's biota (fish and microinvertebrate communities).  The restoration process seeks to reverse this damage by creating a new stream geomorphology and plantings that will ultimately be more supportive of biota, and become an amenity to Halpern Park.

Before Restoration 
(Summer 2010)

Before Construction 
(Summer 2010)

The City provided a survey database for the project, and the CPL team prepared construction documents, obtained land disturbance and environmental permits, pre-qualified contractors, and provided bidding and construction administration.  Potts Construction is the General Contractor, and submitted a low bid of $161,000. Construction is scheduled to be complete by the fall of 2011.

after grading and initial erosion control, before planting 
(summer 2011)

Planting willow stakes 
(summer 2011)

Construction is going well.  Most landscaping installation will wait until the fall to avoid the summer heat and maximize the chances of the plants surviving.

Clark Patterson Lee is a multi-disciplined architecture, engineering and planning firm that works with cities, counties and institutional clients to help them achieve their infrastructure goals.