What It Takes to Rebuild Infrastructure

People don't like to maintain infrastructure. Build a bridge, or whatever, and politicians will line up to have a dedication and say, "See what good things I am doing for the community!"

But every bridge, dam, or road, ever built needs to be maintained, and will eventually need to be replaced. That is too often ignored, until there is a disaster. And funds are almost never put aside for that replacement, even when they do fund the maintenance.

On 19 May 2020, shortly before dark the Edenville Dam in Michigan failed. Shortly after that, the dam downstream from Edenville, the Sanford Dam also failed. In the aftermath of the disaster two other dams were determined to be in serious need of repair. Actually, the need for repairs was well known even before the disaster. Suits and counter suits had started before the dams collapsed. The owner of the dams wanted to drain the lakes due to the risk. The state didn't want them to do so because of the impact on the environment. After the disaster more legal action was taken.

This video from Jordan Mowbray was posted on the 6th of April. Sanford Dam Progress! - High Water Flowing Through Dam! - Earthen Embankment - Drone -Dam Collapse. It shows the current state of the dam rebuild, and the associated park that was built. It is a 14 minute video, but I found most of the interesting bit was in the first half.

If you look at Jordan Mowbray's channel you will see that there is no progress on the rebuild of the Edenville dam. That is because about halfway through the reconstruction, a lawsuit was filed. That was resolved in March. Judge throws out Michigan home owners' lawsuits against Four Lakes Task Force. As soon as that ruling was handed down, The Four Lakes Task Force, the organization that has become responsible for the dams and the reconstruction effort, filed (or refiled) all of their paperwork with the state, and got approvals from all the regulators to restart construction of the dam.

There are some interesting videos at the YT channel above about what was done prior to the lawsuit, but I will only reference one. This video shows how the earthen embankment was reinforced with a Cement/Bentonite Cutoff wall. GIANT TRENCHER! Edenville Dam Earthen Embankment Soil Cement Bentonite Cutoff - Drone - Dam Collapse. It is a 5 minute video. Bentonite, in its various forms, is used in different waterproofing applications, such as sealing the outside of below-grade walls.