A major $91 million project will soon get underway as the Army Corps of Engineers Nashville Division is replacing spillway gates at the Center Hill Dam.
Project Manager Omar Acevedo said the need comes from friction and stress on mechanical parts that raise and lower the gates. He said in addition to the wear and tear, the gates are original to when the dam was built in 1948 and are far past their lifespan.
“This is a very unusual, I would say, of a construction project,” Acevedo said. “Just because it’s not something that is done every day. We’ve seen in other projects where we’ve had limitations of doing some rehab to the gates itself, or the machinery, but in this, we’re doing a full gate replacement and machinery.”
Acevedo said the contractors are currently fabricating the new gates and machinery. He said he doesn’t expect significant construction impacts in the near future to traffic crossing the dam on Highway 96. He said they currently expect construction to begin in spring of 2024 and continue until 2028.
Acevedo said one constraint for the contractors is that they are only permitted to work during the dry season to have as little impact as possible on public use of the lake. He said the Army Corps of Engineers is doing its best to make sure lake levels will not drop drastically and hope to keep the levels three feet below average at most.
“The Corps of Engineers will do everything possible in the planning and execution phases of the project to reduce traffic impacts to local businesses and residents,” Acevedo said. “Traffic on Highway 96 will be reduced to one lane for the duration of the construction and occasional full closure up to 24 hours, but not on weekends.”
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