Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Using limestone road base for small damn

I have a small draw that runs through my farm. There is also an old abandoned highway that runs through my farm as well. I was thinking about dozing up this limestone base and building a damn across this draw that is basically 12' deep and 25' across. I would locate the damn on the downstream side of an existing pond that I am also planning on cleaning out at the same time. Would this limestone road base be OK to use if I compacted it every foot or so as I built the damn up?

I hope others respond but think they wil say not good for dam. The dam is the Heart of the lake. If it fails it is all over. Use a high % clay base not limestone. Now as far as using that in the bottom body I would say it would result in good water quality.

Merc,

Like Greg stated, I don't think your choice of material is best for the dam but I'm shooting from the hip here because both of my ponds are excavated so my opinion probably doesn't hold much water. With the dam acting as a bung, I would want it as water tight as possible, something I don't think you would achieve with compacted limestone. You could use the limestone base for a road on top of the dam.

Mercury,

I agree that you are asking for trouble using a limestone road base for your dam. Its just too porous but could serve, as Russ said, as a nice surface for the top of the dam. Look for good clay soils to use in the dam and you won't have to worry about leaks.

Thanks for the information. The road base has a lot of fines in it. My thought process was that the lime would moreless hold the water back but I guess if there was too much aggregate in the road base that you would lack the cohesion that you would get from a clay soil. Looks like I'll just use it for roads.

Mercury :

Limestone is far to porous to use in your dam. It can have pore space up to 30 % and in many cases is the formation from which oil , gas and water is produced from underground. So under pressure water will flow through it. Plus it has a tendency to dissolve under certain conditions. It would be gerat for the top and or face (waterside) of the dam as an extra covering as it is good for the water and for fish to spawn on.