Dredging Lake Decatur Ellicott Dredges

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Ellicott Case Studies


370 HP Mud Cat Dredge
working on Lake Decatur
DREDGING OF LAKE DECATUR
Client/Contact:  City of Decatur, IL
Performed by: Southwind Construction
Value • Contract Type
Key Project Tasks:
Dredging bottom sediments accumulated over 50 years. Ensure drinking water quality remained pure. Employ quiet mufflers and sound deadening equipment. Remove bottom sediment. Control turbidity around the dredge. Transfer slurried sediment to the disposal area via a double-wall 18" HDPE pipeline Send slurried sediment to disposal site for separation
SWC was awarded the $3.2 million contract in 1992 to perform the dredging of Lake Decatur in Decatur Illinois. The City of Decatur along with a Consultant was managing the lake clean-up effort. The City of Decatur with the help of some federal grants provided funding for the clean-up effort. The project consisted of dredging Lake Decatur of bottom sediments deposit in the lake over the last 50 years.
The lake was the sole source of the cities drinking water which required steps to be taken to ensure the quality of the water remained pure. The disposal area was located 11,000 feet from the lake with an 80-foot dredge lift. Homes were located along the shoreline of the lake, which made hospital quiet mufflers and sound deadening equipment a requirement.
SWC began the project by mobilizing the dredge and ancillary equipment needed for the project. The 11,000 feet of 18" HDPE pipe was fused together with water tight joints. The pipe was located through a pristine wooded area, across 2 ditches and two county roads. A booster pump was mounted on two floating barges positioned in the lake and operated by remote control.
The bottom sediment was dredged from the lake and pumped utilizing a state-of-the-art hydraulic dredge that maneuvered with a "walking spud system". This allowed the dredge to travel 10 feet without swapping spuds to take a step. The dredge was equipped with three forty five foot idle barges enabling the dredge to make a three hundred foot wide swing. The dredge cutter-head was equipped with a variable speed controller with a protective shield specifically designed for this project in order to control turbidity around the dredge. The slurried sediment was transferred from the dredge via a double-wall 18" HDPE pipeline to the disposal area.
Once transferred to the disposal area, the slurry was cycled through a system of internal separation dikes. The material was monitored during the filling of the disposal area so that weirs could be controlled to allow for sufficient settling time. The effluent water from the disposal area ran through a series of check dams before re-entering the main body of the city lake. The requirement for the effluent was 15 ppm. The effluent was checked on a daily basis to ensure the safety of the cities drinking water supply.
Coupled with an extensive sampling and analysis program, facilitated by SWC Engineers and coordinated with the City, the Decatur Lake Dredging Project removed bottom sediment from the site using proven technologies and improving the Cities drinking water supply not only by volume of water available but also the quality of the water.
Project Highlights/Successes:
Dredged over 2,000,000 cy to a spoil area over two miles away.  Not only maintained but improved water quality in the lake during the dredging operation.  Results from the analytical testing of the effluent water met or exceeded requirements in the  NPDES permit and the expectations of all project participants.


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