Preliminary costs to raise Meadow Park Lake estimated between 50 and 100 million dollars

In Tuesday’s Crossville City Council work session, Representatives of the JR Wauford Company Consulting Engineers presented council with an update on evaluation studies to raise the Meadow Park Dam by 18 feet. According to engineers, the cost could range from $50 million in the best case, up to $100 million at worst. The JR Wauford Company has been inventorying and identifying wetlands and streams that would be impacted by increasing the dam and have determined almost 19,000 feet of stream and almost 72 acres of wetland would be impacted. And while the Army Corps of Engineers is requiring mitigation of significantly less of that area, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, at the moment, is requiring mitigation of the entire identified areas. Engineers are asking council to hire a mitigation contractor as well as to continue negotiations with TDEC to minimize the scope of required mitigation.