Fairfax County will receive $4.5 million in federal stimulus cash to overhaul two aging dams, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this week.
The money, along with a local funding match, will go to rehabilitating dams at Lake Barton and Woodglen Lake. County officials expect to begin construction on the latter next spring.
That project will shore up the dam’s spillway, a channel that carries away overflowing water that is now threatening to erode during a heavy rainstorm. The improvements will protect 157 homes that could be flooded should the spillway fail, as well as businesses, railroad tracks and area roads, said county spokesman Brian Worthy.
The Lake Barton Project is far more in its infancy, and does not yet have design plans.
The funds represent a proportionally large part of the total $45 million in grants announced by the USDA, which are part of the $787 billion stimulus plan. The dams are the only ones in Virginia to benefit from the round of funding.
The money is directed “toward the most cost-effective projects where there is the greatest risk of infrastructure failure and threat to life and property,” the USDA said in a statement.
Fairfax County does not plan to drain the Woodglen Lake dam during construction, or raise the top of the dam, though it will relocate walking paths and cut down trees in the path of the spillway upgrade that the county plans to replant elsewhere.
The $2.5 million project would bring the dam up to state and federal safety standards, according to a June 2008 report. It said a breach would put 435 residents and 440 workers at risk. Fairfax County must still put up 35 percent of the cost of the projects.
