University Daily Kansan
Thursday, November 16, 1978
13
Gashes, rust, patch jobs show dam's advanced age
By JOHN LOGAN
Staff Reporter
The Kansas River dam near downtown Lawrence is showing its age.
Huge gasses scar its face and rusted support pylons point like decaying fingers
Faded red and green plastic bags filled with concrete show where a temporary patch job was made on the dam three years ago. The bridge is under the crown of the century-old structure.
The dilapidated dam holds Lawrence's water supply. The Lawrence water plant pulls up to 14 million gallons a day from the reservoir, which uses an average of 12 million gallons a day.
WORRIED ABOUT THE condition of the dam, city commissioners last month asked workmen from the Massachusetts Department to move the dam to a construction causeway running halfway across the river. Water was pumped out of the enclosed area to expose the dam.
City and engineering officials inspected the dam and said they were damaged at the bottom.
"Water is percolating right through," said Jack Ory, a representative of Black and Veach, a Kansas City, Mo., engineering firm, which was called in to inspect the dam.
Black and Veatch submitted a report on its inspection of the dam to the commission last week. The report called for the repair of the dam in the $20,000 at the an estimated cost of $250,000.
EACH HOLT WILL have to be filled with 200 to 300 pound rocks called "ripr-rap," the report said. After the rocks are in place, 48 inches of fill material will be placed on the upstream side to seal the dam. Additional cement work will be done in small areas.
If the dam is not repaired, there is a good chance it could burst under a heavy load.
Little damage would be done downstream, however, because the area is undeveloped. Mike Wildgen, assistant city manager, said last month.
Black and Yeatch assured the commission in its report that the repair work would hast the deterioration of the structure and minimize the chance of the dam failing.
The engineering consultant firm is no stranger to the dam. The company has made two previous studies of the dam in the past 10 years, the most recent in late 1975.
AT THAT TIME Black and Veatch estimated that repairs to the dam would cost $75,000. The company owning the dam purchased the materials filled with cement as a stoppage measure.
The company, Bowersock Power Co., uses the water from the dam to turn the turbines of its small power plant on the south bank of the river Almost 7,000 kilowatts are generated each day, which are sold to the Kansas Power and Light Company.
The power company is the last remnant of a small industrial empire built along the banks of the river by the man whose family has owned the dam for almost 100 years.
The man, J.D. Bowersock, owned five area mills the power company, a paper company, and an oil company.
Bowersock bought the dam from the city in 1879 after the city had taken the dam into
receiverhip from a bankrupt water power company.
CONSTRUCTION OF the dam began in mid-1872 when Orlando Darling, then chairman of the Douglas County Commission, agreed to spend $20,000 in two years for the construction of a dam near the city's railroad bridge.
In exchange, the city agreed to pay $12,000 toward the dam's construction and to purchase 100 horsepower of energy each proposed new dam for the city's proposed water plant.
Construction was half-finished in October 1873, when A.D. Searle, Lawrence city engineer, told the city the dam had not been built. So the city did not辖市 the city not pav its share of the cost.
The City Council inspected the dam and pronounced it sturdy, but two months later an icejam broke loose on the river and ran into the nearly completed structure. It knocked out the dam and the railroad bridge, and forced Darling into bankruptcy.
THE CITY COUNCIL will repair to the dam and S.T. Zimmerman, a local sawmill operator, was hired to resume the work. entire community pitched in to help.
The dam was completed in 1875, but the water power company next to it operated inconsistently because of occasional rises in the river.
The company went bankrupt in 1879 after losing a $21,000 lawsuit for failure to deliver power to James Gower, a local Miller, Gower was Bowersock's father-in-law.
Gower died shortly after he won the suit, leaving the milt to Bowersock, who bought the dam and strengthened the structure, as well as establishing his small empire.
The dam has been damaged by floods three times since its completion. The north end has washed out twice, in 1883 and in 1924. It was destroyed and said recently that the northern half of the dam had been built on gravel while the southern half was built on rock. The northern end was anchored with 40-foot steel rods. The dam's washouts from recurring Hill said.
In 1931, massive rainfall over the Great Plains region inlanded the Lawrence area. Flood waters covered North Lawrence and Brownsville, where the waters punished several holes in the dam.
In 1975, several large holes were discovered by Black and Veat. Rather than pay the $73,000 that the engineers had received for the holes Hill and his brother, Stephan, the executive officers of the Bowersock Power Co., decided to use the plastic bags filled with concrete. The technique was successful under the dam was cut by 60 percent. Hill said.
In a 1975 agreement with the power company, the city obtained the right to repair the dam at any time because of the dam's importance to the city.
Money to repair the dam has already been budgeted from the water utilities maintenance funds, according to Brent McFall, assistant to the city manager. Water rates will not be increased because of the dam repairs, he said.
The commission set Nov. 21 as the bid date for the project after Buford Watson, city manager, said the dam had deteriorated rapidly during the last year. City officials said they expected work on the dam repairs to begin early next year.
THE ORGANIZATION OF ARAB STUDENTS PRESENTS:
Friday, Nov. 17
Feature at 7:00 p.m.
3140 Wescoe Hall
Admission $2.00
14 أبو علي بن أبي طالب 7: 60
11 أبو علي بن أبي طالب 7: 60
3140 أبو علي بن أبي طالب 8: 124
أبو الفرج العباسي 9: 55
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Photo by PAUL ROSE
Bowersock Dam
_Hardee's_