SUNBURY — With repair work on the fabridam scheduled to begin in late July 2017, boating season will be cut short. Two of the dam’s seven inflatable bags will be replaced, along with inspection and possible repairs to other bags.
DNCR’s John Clifford talked about the project, “We’re replacing bags #1 and #7. Those are the two bags on either end of the dam, the one in Sunbury and the one in Shamokin Dam. Those bags date back all the way to 1985. We expect about a 25 year life expectancy on all these bags and these two are actually past their expectancy.”
Clifford says after the work is complete, there shouldn’t be another repair project in the works for another ten years, “The next oldest set of bags which were bags #2 and #3 were done in 2000. If we get 25 years out of them, we’re hoping that it may be close to ten years before we have to do another set of replacements.”
Clifford explained why the repair work cannot be done in the spring, “We try to aim our work for the fall because typically in the spring, we have more high water in the river because of winter ice melt and snow melt. It’s brings the river level up and makes it a lot harder for us to do this sort of work. At the end of the summer, especially if we had a dry year like this past one, water levels are a lot lower and it makes it a lot easier for us to do the work.”
Spring inflation of the dam will take place as usual, with Lake Augusta expected to be ready for boaters for the Memorial Day weekend. The dam will then be deflated in late July and prepared for repairs in early August. John Clifford was a recent guest on WKOK Sunrise. You can listen to his full interview on our website at wkok.com.
