Survey Services Used at Sanford and Edenville Dams Receive ACEC Award
Spicer Group and Four Lakes Task Force were recently presented with the Surveying Honorable Conceptor Award by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Michigan at the ACEC/M Engineering & Surveying Excellence Awards Gala in Plymouth, MI. This awards program recognizes engineering and surveying firms for projects that demonstrate an exceptional degree of innovation, complexity, and value.
Spicer Group and FLTF were given the award for the ongoing surveying services including the use of both traditional and cutting-edge remote sensing technology. These services are key in helping engineers design and reconstruct the damaged Sanford and Edenville Dams, bringing back Sanford and Wixom Lakes, and implementing earth stabilization work and prioritizing problem areas.
In 2018, Spicer Group was hired by FLTF to perform various surveying services to help alleviate bank erosion and collapsing seawalls along the shores of Sanford Lake, Wixom Lake, Secord Lake, and Smallwood Lake. These lakes were formed by the construction of dams along the Tittabawassee and Tobacco Rivers in Midland and Gladwin Counties. Combined, the surface area of all lakes when at full pool is 5,424 acres, and there are approximately 6,255 residences along the shoreline of the lakes.
Pictured from left to right
Casey Bierlein, P.S. (Spicer Group), Ron Hansen, P.E., P.S., Vice President (Spicer Group), David Kepler, President of FLTF, and Brian Boals, P.E., Senior Project Manager (Spicer Group).
Partially demolished spillway at edenville dam.
In May of 2020, Midland and Gladwin counties were hit with several days of severe weather that included record rainfall which caused the Edenville and Sanford dams to fail. This caused major flooding to surrounding landowners upstream and downstream of the dams as well as severe damage to the Smallwood and Secord dams. Hundreds of businesses and residential properties in Gladwin, Midland, and Saginaw counties suffered major flood damage estimated at $200 million. This amount does not include the cost to repair the dams, which is currently estimated to be around $250 million.
The lakes have a direct impact on the local economy. Before the dams failed, the lakes were heavily used by recreation enthusiasts for a variety of purposes—boating and fishing being two key ones. Local restaurants, gas stations, bait shops, grocery stores, and retail shops depend on the yearly wave of visitors to the lakes to sustain their businesses. An economic impact assessment completed by Public Sector Consultants Inc. in 2013 for the Sanford Lake Association and Sanford Lake Preservation Association noted that Sanford Lake alone is responsible for nearly $4 million in spending in the region. The floods have had a devastating effect on those local businesses and spending in the region. Spicer Group’s role in this project is key in restoring the lakes to help the region thrive again.
3D Laser Scan of the Sanford Spillway and Powerhouse.
As instructed by FLTF, Spicer Group’s survey team shifted its responsibility to supporting the design teams during various design tasks that now focus on the restoration and reconstruction of the failed dams. Spicer Group’s survey services continues to support the FLTF’s design initiatives by combining cutting-edge technologies with traditional surveying methods to produce accurate and complete datasets to support the engineering tasks for the FLTF team.
Airborne LiDAR, UAV-based LiDAR and imagery, single and multibeam sonar, 3D laser scanning, precision monitoring, and conventional surveying were all used to capture high-resolution data. This data supports the complete short and long-term engineering and construction needs of the project team to help restore the four lakes to their prior state for everyone to enjoy in a sustainable way for many years into the future.