By Julie Johansen
The onset of early cold weather has prompted the crews at the Millsite Dam rehabilitation project to begin the process of preparing for a winter shut down. Construction crews have been battling the freezing weather for a number of weeks because the ground cannot be compacted enough when the soil is frozen.
Crews are now spreading two feet of protective soil to act as a frost buffer on the 40’ of dam already in place. This sacrificial soil will be removed in the spring when construction starts again. There is still another 74’ of dam to build but now that it has past the berm, it will only require three zones of fill, not five as before, so work should progress much faster in the spring.
The final concrete designs have not yet been received from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the hope remains that by the spring thaw, both concrete and earth work will resume. However, there will be some minor work going on at the site through the winter. The crusher from the site will move up the canyon on the other side of the road and begin to prepare materials for use next spring.
Personnel who have been working at Millsite will be moved to other jobs as much as possible, but a temporary winter lay-off may affect some of the construction crew.