Barton Dam Right Embankment Remediation

Project Overview

NTH has a long history going back to the late 1970s when we assisted the City’s Dam Consultant with dam safety inspections of the earthen embankments at the Barton Dam, a century old dam that consists of a short left embankment, a concrete spillway and powerhouse structure, and a roughly 1500-foot long right embankment. More recently the City chose NTH to provide exploration and analysis services at Barton Dam. Previously, NTH had provided value engineering services through a peer review of another consultant’s analyses and repair recommendations to mitigate observed seepage and piping in a portion of the dam’s right embankment.

Based on data, NTH concluded the available information did not provide conclusive results to suggest that construction of a cut-off wall as recommended by the other consultant would be effective. Our concern was that data on the local groundwater regime did not appear to match the assumed groundwater conditions. Accordingly, the City of Ann Arbor requested that NTH obtain additional information on the piezometric pressures within, below, and away from the dam and to have updated seepage and stability analyses performed.

Project Scope

In 2022, the City again selected NTH to implement a long-term solution that will reduce risk of random or uncontrolled seepage and resultant soil migration from the embankment and simplify monitoring efforts associated with the dam.

Client Benefit

NTH’s extensive knowledge of the site conditions has allowed us to be a trusted advisor to the City of Ann Arbor to over several decades.