I understand that a million dollars is just a rough guess.
There is a homestead about 8km downstream where some people live but I think it's safe to say that their house is also about 10 meters higher than the river. There is some other outposts of the neighbour's farm on the flood plain of the river which definitely would get flooded in the event of dam failure but luckily no people live there and if the dam ever fails I will pay the neighbour if any of his outposts are damaged.
I wouldn't want the dam to fail anytime. That would be quite a loss of money for me, I guess that is why it must be well engineered dam. Putting grass or something on the dam wall would also look a bit more natural than pouring it with cement. What do you mean by the "nice flat area" that I must create?
I am working on getting me all the heavy equipment to do the job myself as you said it will be much cheaper. I'd rather invest the money I saved from doing the job myself in heavy equipment as I have quite a few other jobs I would like to do with them aswell. I already have a bulldozer and wheel loader but I think I will also need a excavator, 2 rock trucks and a padfoot compacter. Please let me know if I need anything else. I will personally be very involved in the project as no mistakes can be made and would probably do some training with at least 2 of my workers somewhere else. I hope by doing it this way the project would work out a little cheaper and still be very well build.
What type of soil is needed for building a earth dam? Mostly clay?
I uploaded the video of the river in flood on YouTube and I will share the link here. Thanks alot for the advice.
