SUMMERSVILLE, WV – The United States Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District performed an inspection of the tunnel at Summersville Dam as part of the Periodic Inspection Program on Wednesday, March 12th at Summersville Lake.
USACE performs periodic inspections on a 5-year cycle and this tunnel is inspected on a 10-year cycle as part of the program. Since there is a large gap in years between inspections, it’s important for the inspection team to be thorough and meticulous to capture and record anything that is observed.
“The short answer is we want to try and catch or mitigate an issue or finding before it gets to a higher, more critical level that could endanger the operability of the component,” said Chris Wood, structural engineer with USACE Huntington District.
The inspection program allows USACE to take a close look at each component of a project to make sure that it is working as designed.
“Ultimately I think it comes down to public safety,” said Wood. “Having these inspections allows us to catch potential issues before they get worse and cause a larger fix or repair which in turn allows us to provide a level of protection to the public.”
Every inspection has its own unique challenges. One of the challenges presented by this inspection was areas of standing water inside the tunnel that made it difficult for personnel to reach certain areas that needed inspection by foot. The inspection team was able to overcome this obstacle by using kayaks to navigate those areas of the tunnel.
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