Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Pond with access across the dam

Sorry if this has been covered but I did not see it as I was looking through the various threads.
I am buying land in Eastern Tennessee and planning to put in a spring fed pond of about an acre. The dam (about 150') will sit where there used to be a dam that washed away. I intend to make more of a bowl in the center with sloping sides for fish to find refuge.
The main difference is that I will also be using the dam as part of the driveway to where the house will sit. We will be driving a car and SUV (with an occasional horse trailer) across the top of it. I would not think that is too hard to construct but it will initially also be used for construction vehicles to get to the property concrete trucks, well truck, etc. (necessitating it be stronger/wider).
Can/should this be done. Or should I just wait until construction is over and build for smaller traffic?
Also how do I find a pond builder?

Hi, and welcome to the forum, BillD!!!

I would suggest contacting your county's NRCS agent for an onsite consultation. They are located in your County's USDA office, and is a free, taxpaer supported, service. The NRCS agent can give you accurate soil types, watershed size, and more. The agent, if asked properly, can tell you who they would hire to build their own personal ponds...(NRCS is not allowed to "suggest" construction companies directly).

I would suggest building an 18-20 foot wide top, and the heavier the equipment crossing the dam, the better, as it adds to the overall compaction.

I would also stronly suggest you buy 2 books from the Pndboss book store..."A Perfect Pond, Want One" by Bob Lusk, and "Just Add Water" by pond building guru, Mike Otto....both books will be invaluable to you as a design and requirements resources in repairing your future land!!!

Thank you Rainman,

I did as you suggested and contacted the NRCS in next county over (ours is closed). I got the names of several individuals who have built ponds and called one that I will meet when I go up there this week. We also talked about a few things that I should discuss with the builder. I will look at buying these books as soon as I can for the rest of the pond design.

BillD, welcome to the forum. Our main entry road is over the dam (1,050 feet). We love it, and Rex (Rainman)covered most of the important stuff. I'll just add that your emergency spillway will probably be at the end of the dam, so a wide gentle wide slope works well for that area. Narrow spillways may erode due to daily traffic, and water velocity during heavier rain events, so I would pay special attention to that area. You may even want to consider driveway fabric with rock, or concrete in that area.

BillD, As FireIsHot suggested, an emergency spillway will be a must, and depending on topography, will likely have to be placed at one or both ends of your dam. Since your Dam is also your access road, it will need to be exceptionally well built, and designed to divert water away from the constructed dam, and to make overflowing water flow as slowly, shallowly, and gently as possible to avoid a washout. several culvert pipes can help let large rain events flow without actually topping your road surface, but in case you get a massive rain event, that area should still be a couple feet lower than the dam.

I would also suggest buying the books I mentioned, and reading them repeatedly, plus this forum a lot, before contacting a builder. You will learn more of what you will require of your builder, and be able to knowledgeably ask question of them to ensure they are truly competent POND builders, and not just a dirt pusher that will need to be constantly supervised to ensure everything is compacted and built properly.

I personally had my first 2.5 acre pond "built" years ago before finding this site, for $3800....and spent another $30,000 plus, repairing the massive leaks the original build left me with.....Like many here, I found this site long after the disasters my original dirt guy left me with needed repair

Is this planned road your only access to the house? If so, I would just stress the importance of over-engineering the dam with spillways appropriately sized for your watershed so that washouts are nearly an impossibility.

How much engineering is too much engineering? Considering that we had a so-called "1 in 100" year rain event at our place in 2008 and then a "1 in 1000" year rain event this year, I couldn't really tell you.

I second the concrete suggestion for the emergency spillway. If the dam is the access to the house, you don't want to be driving over the emergency spillway made of dirt/grass when it has water flowing over it, and if concrete, I'd be leery of driving over it if the water is over 3"-4" deep anyway.

How big is the watershed? I would make the emergency spillway as wide as the budget will allow, and pour a concrete cutoff wall on the pond side with culverts concreted in under the road, and the road itself at least six inches thick concrete over packed gravel across the extent of the e spillway. With the floods I have seen around here the past 15 years or so, a spillway cannot easily be over engineered.

A neighbor has a 7 acre pond in a valley with a little over 400 acres of watershed, and his spillway was running at least four feet deep in the middle, and about 90 feet wide, at the peak of the spring 2011 flood. It did not wash out, but it was over engineered just for that possibility. They called it a 100 year flood, but since then we have had a couple more about like that in this local area. You can have a 100 or 500 year flood in a small localized watershed from a big thunderstorm, and not affect the general area much.