Various Dams Between Utica and Albany
Foit-Albert, as a subconsultant, assisted with Class A, B, and C Dam and Movable Dam Safety Inspections for the Eastern Region of the Erie Canal under a NYPA term agreement. The inspections followed the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) Part 673.12 dam safety guidelines and the 1995 Canal Structure Inspection Manual (CSIM).
Under a delayed and compressed schedule initiated in August 2022, Foit-Albert’s Field Inspector worked with eight (8) dam safety inspection teams to complete thirty-three (33) dam safety inspections by mid-November, with all 33 draft inspection reports delivered by mid-January 2023. The Field Inspections included bridges, roadways, and dams.
Responsibilities included daily safety inspections and job hazards, gate operations and functions, proper water flow, dam maintenance, gate pan condition (such as paint deterioration, delamination, chains, and gate functions), concrete visual inspection, conditions of grating and walkways, conditions of hand railings and structural beams, an inspection of hydraulic motor functions and proper fluids used in operation. Embankment and abutment stability, notation of daily water levels, photologs, daily reporting, finalized field reports, teams meetings, calculation of the embankment slopes, valve operations and functions, earth and embankment dam inspections, proper stop log installations, water flow surface conditions, box culvert inspections (wading in the water and doing physical walk-through examination), Confined Space Certified, inspection and safety (performed multiple confined space inspections), functions of counterweights, all on-site visual electrical inspection and on-site drone inspections. Examination of the dam, steel, concrete, and all surrounding earth. A Photo-Log of project sites was created.
Among the inspections were 14 facilities that were either movable dams (Mohawk River and Erie Canal Locks E-8 through E16 and E18) or contained a large radial or tainter gate. Out of the 14 facilities, 6 locations required confined space entry to inspect low-level outlet components. All Dam Safety Inspection Reports were uploaded into the Canal Infrastructure Management System (CIMS) for documentation storage, Quality Control, and Quality Assurance purposes.
