FALLS OF ROUGH, Ky. (WDRB) — Work began Tuesday to repair the leaking dam at Rough River Lake, a project expected to take crews six to eight years to complete.
The $800 million project will begin with construction of a new outlet system on the left side of the dam.
Once it is operational, crews will abandon the existing outlet tower and build a cutoff wall along the top of the dam to help prevent water from seeping through its foundation.
Crews will also relocate the KY-79 roadway back to the top of the dam.
"We are not going to let that dam fail," said Adam Telle, the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works.
Telle oversees the civil works program for the Army Corps of Engineers. He was on hand Tuesday as officials broke ground on Phase 2 of construction.
Phase 1 of the project began after problems with the dam were first discovered in 2012.
Engineers identified layers of limestone underneath the dam that were slowly leaking. That phase of work temporarily relocated the road on top of the dam and completed exploratory drilling across its centerline.
The dam’s condition continued to deteriorate, and by 2023, the Corps changed its Dam Safety Action Classification rating from 3, meaning "moderate urgency," to 2, meaning "high urgency." A rating of 1 indicates "very high urgency," while 4 means "low urgency" and 5 means "normal."
Engineers then lowered the summer pool water level by five feet below its normal level.
Telle called Rough River Lake’s dam one of the government’s "most monitored dams."
"It's fallen into disrepair," he said. "The citizens of this area count on it to protect them from floods. They enjoy the recreational aspects of it. It's an important facility."
Once Phase 2 is finished, project leaders believe the upgrades will strengthen the dam for another 50 to 60 years.
"Is it a problem? Yes, it's a problem," said Jason Root, resident engineer for the Louisville District Corps. "Is it is it the imminent threat? No, but that's why we have all kinds of instrumentation that is on the dam that allows us to understand, 'Hey, there's a problem, and we've got to address it now.'"
Root said there will be minimal traffic impacts during the years of work and that lake visitors are not likely to experience disruption outside of the lower water level.
Initially, Rough River Lake residents were concerned when they learned the water would be lower. However, now that boaters and dock owners have experienced the impacts of the change, some say it is not as difficult as they imagined.
"Once we got past the first year of the five-foot level drop, people realized that it wasn't that big an impact," said Charlie Corbett, who heads the Friends of Rough River group.
Corbett has not missed a season at the lake since the ’60s and has been instrumental in working with lawmakers, including Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, to secure the dam project.
He believes the people who visit the lake and those who call it home can accept lower water levels in exchange for the longevity of a lake they love.
"All of our waterways are still usable," he said. "We still have huge tourism numbers that that come. The local landowners, property owners here, have dealt with it now. So, it was not the issue that a lot of people thought it was going to be."
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