Rains delay completion of Lake Delhi project

DELHI - A soggy November has delayed construction of the Lake Delhi dam, which officials had hoped to complete this month.

'It looks more like late January or early February before we can close the gates on the dam and start refilling the lake,” said Steve Leonard, president of Lake Delhi's governing board.

Frequent and at times heavy rains have reduced the number of days and hours suitable for work. And wet, slippery clay, the main ingredient of the 235-foot-long earthen dam that will impound the Maquoketa River, has limited the mobility of heavy equipment, Leonard said.

The project was further delayed, he said, when some of the latter truckloads of clay did not meet impermeability specifications and a second clay source had to be found.

'I'd say we lost a couple of weeks in November and a week in October. It's hard to pour concrete over greasy clay,” said Pat Colgan, a retired civil engineer and volunteer project coordinator.

While lake residents are eager to have the impoundment refilled, the big picture impact will be minimal, since the lake should still be full in time for the 2016 recreation season, Colgan said.

Leonard said the contractor, General Constructors Inc. of the Quad Cities, has three crews working on the project - one moving dirt, another pouring concrete and a third installing concrete footings - and they are all 'going full steam ahead.”

The dam failed following heavy rains on July 24, 2010, sending the lake's contents flooding downstream. The lake community of more than 800 residents has now been without the lake for nearly 5 1/2 years.

The project fell behind earlier this year when the rain-swollen Maquoketa River washed out a coffer dam - a steel wall designed to divert the river from the dike construction site - shutting down work from June 14 until July 13.

Leonard said residents are taking advantage of the dry lake bed to remove silt from portions of it using backhoes and dump trucks - a technique that is much more cost effective than dredging after the lake has been refilled.

The Lake Delhi Combined Recreational Facility and Water Quality District is reviewing funding requests from neighborhood associations and providing 80 percent of the cost of projects considered to be cost-effective and of benefit to public recreation on the lake.