Situation
The Judy Reservoir is located in Skagit County. This project required raising two existing dams so that the Skagit County Public Utility District could provide more potable water storage for county residents. GBI was called in after the first contractor failed to complete the project, claiming the existing soils were too wet.
Solution
The project required GBI to to drill and blast portions of zone materials, dry soils, crush rock, screen soil, and separate them into the usable types required for dam construction. We excavated at the base of both dams and installed a toe drain system, hauling the processed borrow source materials to raise the dam.
GBI also rerouted an existing stream that would be covered by water from the new dam structures. Finally, the borrow pit was converted into a new wetland area with ponds, trees, snags, and other native landscaping.
Notable
Because the soil was very wet, it needed to be dried in large quantities so that it was suitable for dam construction. GBI designed and built the first one-of-a-kind plows that fit onto the back of our D-8 Dozer shanks. These plows were able to “turn” the material over at a greater depth than by conventional means, speeding up the drying process up and keeping the project on schedule. To this day, these plows are unique to our industry and GBI uses them on a variety of our current projects.
