Four Lakes Task Force Dam Restoration

In May of 2020, record rainfall in mid-Michigan caused the failure of the Edenville Dam and partial failure of the Sanford Dam. These failures resulted in severe flooding in and around the area of Midland, Michigan. In addition to the dam failures, damage was sustained at the Smallwood and Secord Dams, farther upstream. The Four Lakes Task Force, which was in the process of acquiring the dams prior to the disaster, hired Spicer Group as the engineering program manager to assist with restoration and rebuilding efforts. Spicer Group, working with Merjent as the environmental subconsultant, has been assisting with permitting related to wetlands, inland lakes, and streams, floodplains, inland lake levels, and dam safety.

 In addition to design-related tasks, Spicer Group has completed or coordinated various surveys throughout the entire Four Lakes corridor that include the following: high order permanent control networks, daily spillway settlement monitoring, terrestrial static laser scanning of concrete spillway structures, conventional topographic and boundary surveys, dozens of UAV missions for airborne imagery acquisition, various manned and unmanned LiDAR missions to support floodplain modeling and design.