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Lockington Dam is an earthen embankment located across the Loramie Creek in southern Shelby County near the Village of Lockington. It is maintained by The Miami Conservancy. In March of 1913, the Miami Valley had three storms converged on the state, dumping 9 to 11 inches of rain on already soaked and frozen ground producing a 90-percent runoff and causing the Great Miami River and its tributary streams to overflow. Every city along the river was inundated with floodwaters. The amount of water that passed through the river channel in Dayton equaled the amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls in a 30-day period. The dam has two concrete conduits through the base of the embankment near the center of the valley. The conduits are sized to discharge floodwaters at a rate that can be handled by the flood protection levees and channels downstream. The remainder of the floodwaters are temporarily stored behind the dam and released over time. An emergency spillway is located directly above the conduits in the same structure
Lockington Dam Statistics
6,400 feet long
69 feet high
409 feet wide at dam base
1.135 million cubic yards of earth in the embankment
Two concrete conduits
Each conduit is 46 feet long, 9.2 feet high and 9 feet wide
The spillway is 72 feet long
Volume of concrete in the conduits and spillway is 38,000 yards
Elevation and Hydraulic Information
Elevation of the dam is 954 feet above sea level
Peak elevation probate maximun flood is 948 feet above sea level
Spillway elevation is 938 feet above sea level
Peak elevation official plan flood is 940 above sea level
Elevation where storage begins is 888 feet above sea level
Peak discharge for OPF is 9,000 cubic feet per second
Time to empty the storage area after an Official Plan Flood is seven days
Water stored to the spillway would inundate 4,020 acres of land upstream from Lockington Dam. The 70,000 acre-feet of water would extend along Loramie Creek 18 miles to Ohio 705 in Fort Loramie, Shelby County
Lockington Dams, was first built virtually as a gap, or great trough, through the dam from toe to toe, formed by two massive walls of concrete facing each other with a concrete floor between. This gap through the dam gave ample waterway for the passage of floods of considerable size, during the construction period. After the dam embankment had been raised to the elevation where there was not further danger of overtopping by floods, a concrete cross dam was built between the two side walls of the outlet structure, leaving openings, or conduits, at the bottom of such size as is required for permanent flood control. The tops of the cross dam, which constitute the spillways, are from 12 to 15 feet below the tops of the earth embankments.
Excavation for the outlet structures was performed by dragline machines. A large part of it had to be first loosened by blasting. The vertical sides of the rock excavation were trimmed down to the final lines by hand, and the concrete laid directly against the rough rock, thus forming a tight bond between the two.
Gravel suitable for concrete was found close at hand, and in one case (Lockington) enough was excavated in uncovering the rock foundation to furnish all the concrete material needed. The natural gravel was excavated by dragline, and brought to a gravel plant close to the site of the work, where it was dumped into a hopper, elevated by a belt conveyor to the top of the plant, then washed by water under pressure, and separated into three sizes, sand, fine gravel, and coarse gravel. Excess and oversize material was discarded. The proper proportion of material was delivered to a one-yard concrete mixer in the same building. Cement came from a shed close at hand. The resulting concrete was delivered to the site of the work by narrow gauge trains operated by gasoline locomotives, and either “chuted” into place, or hoisted in buckets by means of steel derricks, as the location permitted. The mix of concrete varied from about 1-13/4-3 ½ in conduit linings to about 1-3-6 in the bodies of the heavy retaining walls. Collapsible sectional forms were used in the tunnel type of outlet structure, while movable panel forms were used in the other type, and in the spillways. Wherever possible, equipment and forms were standardized. The cement and concrete were under the control of chemical and physical tests at all times.
To log this cache please email the answers to the following questions along
with a picture of yourself with your GPS and the view of the water in the background.
Logs missing any of the required information will be deleted per EarthCache Rules.
Email answers/photo to owner to get credit, do not post on log.
Please take picture at these coordinates: 40 12.842 084 14.647 Either north
side or south will work for me.
1.What is the date on the bridge?
2.The dams of the Miami Conservancy District are for___ ___ ___
3. Facing south, how many white and yellow pipes are there to the left in the grassy area?
4.If the flood waters of 1913 reached an elevation here of 940 above sea level, how much vertical clearance would this dam have had, based on your GPS measurements?
All find logs MUST have the accompanying picture or they will be deleted.
This is a result of “armchair/desktop” EarthCaching attempts.
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