My current contractor that has been slowly working for a year just flaked and decided someone else was a higher priority and pulled his equipment off my dam renovation.

I need to find a new excavator contractor. Any suggestions for a KY contractor?

That sucks. Sorry to hear it.

I have a dam that is 200ft long, planned to 20-25ft high from bottom of face, 40 ft high from toe for a 2 acre impoundment. It blocks off a deep ravine. The dam will look like a question mark (NOT MY DESIGN) when completed. It doesn't have to, but the contractor thought it would be a good idea to bowl out the straight dam because, "curves look good in a pond". Now I have a cut dam down 15ft straight through....about 150ft remains of the old straight dam, which I would like to be re-cored. I want this thing done once and done right. The new curve is complete, but the old straight dam needs to be reworked and pushed behind into the ravine.

WHAT PIECE OF EQUIPMENT TO DO IT MYSELF? I WILL RENT BTW.

My thoughts go to a bull dozer to remove the old dam quicker, but I have a haul from the opposite side of the pond to move clay to rebuild. (Did I mention it still is holding about .47 acres of old water? NO? meant to!)So I have to haul around the rim of the old pond and be weary of sludgy old black clay. There is about 40ft of exposed bank before the face of where my new dam will be cut.

I also thought of renting a high lift to bucket scoops of earth and still have the weight for compaction. But.....my thoughts are that it will take longer bucket by bucket full to rebuild the dam.

I have about 3 more thousand to finish. I have dropped 3 already. Was quoted 4K to re-core.

A total height over 35' (32' in Missouri) from toe to top falls into Federal jurisdiction ....

Is the old dam inside the new pool area? Is it lower than the thew dam and will be submerged? If so, leave it there and maybe make a few cuts in it for structure. Do you have the watershed to support a 2 acre body of water?

I feel as if I do have enough runoff to support a 2 acre pond. Its fed from 2 area runoffs at separate ends of the pond. The steady flow might recycle the water enough to keep good aeration during summer months.

The open curve of the new dam would put the old straight core inside of the pool area. The old core sits just inside the curve, essentially the under the new face. The new core is going in directly behind the old core. The old dam leaked under the face, through the old core, and out of the foot possibly through old decayed roots and organic debris when the dam was built years ago. Maybe even muskrat holes never addressed. (30 years ago???) This is my second attempt at fixing this dam. The first attempt was made and I dug out where I saw water being sucked into a muskrat hole like a commode flushing. I dug 15ft down into the bowl and repacked new clay. It worked, until the water rose over my repair to the face of the dam and found new hidden holes to drain into. The backside water flow was coming out at the same point as before my repair. I am picturing an internal cavern of sorts the water flow has eroded.

Now, with that being as it is, I am now digging below the lowest part of the pool to re-core the entire length, pushing the old dam (minus the old core) behind the backside and grading it out, then pulling in new clay from around the bowl to rebuild a new core trench and rebuilding the new dam on top. (37.95175, -85.74057)

I need to grab clay from a dry part of the bowl to deepen it no matter what I do. It's currently about 2-3ft deep in an area that has not been wet since 98. I want it 8ft deep at 3:1 for bowl span of 1/3 an acre. Google earth has my full pool at just under 2 acres in 1998. At the time I purchased the pond in 2014 it was only .68 acres. That's how much water has been missing for that long. Old owner was a horse guy, not a pond guy.

I want to repair the dam, fix the low spots when full and create good channels and ledges for spawning. I can use all that clay for the new build. My bowl is 100% clay deep as I wanna dig. I am in a flood plain. Clay is abundant.

I'll post pics when I get a chance.

Look at my profile under pond rebuild on the ole facebook.

Jason Rutledge

Google Earth view overhead

<a href="http://s821.photobucket.com/user/JasonRutledgeDell/media/Google%20Earth%20Timeline%20of%20Leak.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz135/JasonRutledgeDell/Google%20Earth%20Timeline%20of%20Leak.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Google Earth Timeline of Leak.jpg"/></a>

Looking down to the backside of the dam.

<a href="http://s821.photobucket.com/user/JasonRutledgeDell/media/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20171029_172758006.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz135/JasonRutledgeDell/Mobile%20Uploads/IMG_20171029_172758006.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_20171029_172758006.jpg"/></a>

My finger is where the water should be
<a href="http://s821.photobucket.com/user/JasonRutledgeDell/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1519573670514.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz135/JasonRutledgeDell/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1519573670514.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FB_IMG_1519573670514.jpg"/></a>

A better image of how the dam is cut straight through
<a href="http://s821.photobucket.com/user/JasonRutledgeDell/media/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1519573610055.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i821.photobucket.com/albums/zz135/JasonRutledgeDell/Mobile%20Uploads/FB_IMG_1519573610055.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FB_IMG_1519573610055.jpg"/></a>

At its most full after the first repair. I started on piers for my dock but then recognized the new drainage happening. See the dam and how its straight?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SejRtSRuuw&list=WL&t=18s&index=2


This should help. A walk around today.