Rouleau Dam Emergency Repair and Removal
Matt Jackson, PE, CERP
Christian Boisvert, EIT
Fuss & O’Neill
Williston, VT
Authors: Jackson, MS & Boisvert, CN
The Rouleau Dam was a privately-owned concrete and granite dam on a rural property in Williamstown, VT. The dam was partially flanked and suffered partial failure during the June and July 2023 floods in Vermont resulting in damage to the dam embankment. The State of Vermont Dam Safety Program provided a temporary fix for the damage and issued a dam order requiring both permanent fixes of the damage and upgrades of the dam to ensure long-term safety. Dam repairs were to be completed immediately due to the Significant hazard potential rating and overall poor condition of the dam.
Fuss & O’Neill provided emergency assessment and design services for a partial breach. The design would establish an approximately 15-foot-wide by 3-foot-deep weir to facilitate permanent drawdown of the impoundment while a full dam removal design was developed. The partial breach was implemented prior to Thanksgiving, 2023. This emergency project was the first ever to utilize funds from the Vermont Unsafe Dam State Revolving Fund to relieve the financial burden on the landowners.
In 2024, Fuss & O’Neill pivoted to the development of a permanent dam removal and impoundment restoration design. The removal design included full height and width removal of the 65-foot-long dam and excavation of all ~1,700 cubic yards of impounded sediment. Re-establishment of a natural sediment transport regime was a key target for this project, but impounded sediments could not be allowed to mobilize in any capacity due to excess sediment aggradation and flooding issues in communities immediately downstream. The approximately 1.6-acre impoundment was set to be converted into a wetland complex, consistent with the assumed historic land use of the area and with a significant beaver complex immediately upstream. The design also included replacement of an undersized culvert crossing with a single-span bridge to improve aquatic organism passage and provide the landowner with vehicular access to the opposite side of the impoundment.
This presentation will discuss the flow of this project from emergency assessment through construction, the criticality of project partner coordination, and the anticipated benefits of this project for the ecosystem and community.
About Matt Jackson, PE, CERP
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About Christian Boisvert, EIT
Coming Soon