In early October, town staff noticed the Smithfield Lake Dam along Waterworks Road had eroded on the downstream side near the emergency spillway. The erosion was likely caused by high surface runoff volumes and high flow velocities through the emergency spillway during Matthew's heavy rainfall, according to a recent engineer report by Newport News-based engineering consultant Draper Arden Associates. The repair will cost about $175,000, most of which will likely by funded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, town officials said.
With the planned FEMA funding, the actual cost to the town will be roughly $35,000, Smithfield Mayor Carter Williams said Thursday.
"From what we can see, it does not appear to be an urgent repair," Andrew Snyder, senior program manager for Draper Arden said Thursday. "The town is checking the condition of it on an almost daily basis, just to see if we see anything different. Nothing out there seems to indicate any particular urgent problem."
Hurricane Matthew, which brought more than 10 inches of rain to some parts of the county, saturated fields, ravaged crops and flooded some businesses. Some of it also flowed over Smithfield Lake Dam's main spillway into the emergency spillway in October. The force of this overflow displaced a downstream segment of the emergency spillway, Snyder said.
"The good news is, the emergency spillway worked," Snyder said. "It was put there for a reason, and when it was needed, it worked."
The Virginia Department of Transportation recorded that Isle of Wight County incurred roughly $355,000 in damage to roads from the hurricane, according to an October report by Isle of Wight County staff. There also was an estimated $1.5 million loss from cotton, peanut and soybean crop damage, and roughly $680,000 in residential and commercial damage, the report said.
Though the damage to the spillway is not significant, town staff continue to monitor the dam and will take precautions, should an extremely heavy rain be forecast for the area, Snyder said.
Repairs to the dam will include extending the emergency spillway culvert, flattening the slope of the downstream embankment, and reshaping existing curb breaks. The project would likely take three to four months, Snyder said.
Draper Arden submitted a proposal to the town this month for contracting the repair. Draper Arden's cost for contracting and monitoring the work is $50,000, a separate fee from the project's $175,000 cost.
Smith can be reached by phone at 757-510-1663.
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