Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam OverFlow/SpillWay

I am currently in the process of reconstructing a new overflow for a 12-acre lake. The Lake used to have an overflow much like others described here, where a free standing pipe (20 ft.H 18in. dia.) was the overflow. I am attempting to construct a concrete box(for lack of better terms) as a receiver for the overflow pipe that extends through the dam. The overflow box will be approx. 2ft sq, and will be used to control the water level of the lake.

I have been trying to research a good way to create a gate (or some other such method) built into the concrete box that will allow me to drain the lake to a maintenance level. Using medal as a drop in gate could lead to problems, and I don't see a good way to add an additional pipe(with valve) at the bottom of the box.

I need assistance in determining a good method that would allow controlling an opening at the bottom of the box (much like a gate method used on larger dams). Of course this would allow draining of the lake to that level.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I also have a lake that I want to set up with that type of system. I found a company, Flow-Technics, that sales sluice gates. Contact John Carney - email john@flowtechnics.com or 800-434-3569.

You can find some information at www.hfontaine.com

Thanks for you Post. I have sent mail to that
company and we will see what happens from there.

Just a Note-

The primary reason for change was because the
freestanding overflow broke twice in 3 years.
I didn't put it there... hehe.

Engineers have told me you can't free stand a pipe
without a pile-land holding it. Well 2 Hurricanes have shown them to be correct.

I have a pdf showing what I intend to do. Maybe we can both learn something as we proceed.

The drawing(and pics) can be found here:
http://www.americanweb.us/dam

There is also a pic of one of the smaller fish we were able to save while trying to repair the broken pipe.

With this new overflow method there it is a lot less likely to loose all the fish, or other aquatic life in the lake.