Steve's Dam Obsession: Bluestone Dam's 30-Year Upgrade
One thing you may not know about Steve is that he loves seeing and learning about dams. While driving back from our day at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, we came across Bluestone Dam . Of course we pulled over to get a closer look!
Bluestone Dam is on the New River, forming Bluestone Lake. It is 165 feet tall and 2,048 feet long. It was built in the 1930s, and has a lot of the features of other Art Deco and Art Moderne style dams we’ve seen in our travels.
The dam is undergoing an almost 30 year long major repair and upgrade project, currently in its 5th and final phase, called a Dam Safety Assurance Mega-Project by the Corps of Engineers. It has been under construction for this project since 2001! In March this year, the 5th phase reached its half way mark - a 5 year project to upgrade the right stilling basin was completed - and work on the left stilling basin began. The full project is scheduled to be completed in 2030!
From the photos you can see the left stilling basin has been fully drained and they are dredging and removing old portions of concrete.
