Project to repair and upgrade Langley Pond's dam about to begin

BURNETTOWN — A new chapter is about to be written in the history of the dam at Langley Pond, which is one of the Horse Creek Valley’s best-known landmarks.

At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aiken County Council will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the project to repair, strengthen and retrofit the barrier, which has been around for more than 160 years.

“It’s an exciting time for me,” said Aiken County Engineering Director Joe Berry. “I have never been involved in building a dam like this.”

Constructed in 1854 primarily as an earthen dam, the embankment was 900 feet long and 20 feet high. During South Carolina’s worst earthquake ever, the dam suffered major damage when a 4-foot-high wall of water burst through it in 1886.

While conducting a recent tour of the dam, Berry mentioned the remnants of another material used to build it, timber, that remain from early times.

But he spent most of the time strolling around and discussing a feature of more recent vintage, the concrete spillway that he said dates back to the 1950s.

In the fall of 2014, leaks were found in that area after a man walking his dog noticed the water’s color in the creek below the dam looked different from normal.

“We detected two bad ones,” Berry said. “The water was still coming over the dam, but it also was boiling out from underneath. That was bringing out dirt that was used as fill material in the dam and it was creating voids, which is not a very good thing.”

Because of those leaks, Langley Pond was closed. And they’re the reason why the County, which owns the pond and the park surrounding it, had to come up with millions of dollars to resolve the problems created by the holes.

An $8 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which includes a $2 million match from the County, provided some of the money. In addition, Council voted in 2016 to issue a general obligation bond for up to $12 million.

Last December, Council approved a resolution to accept a $13,531,650 offer from North Carolina-based Crowder Construction Co. to serve as the contractor for the Langley dam project.

Schnabel Engineering of West Columbia developed the design and will serve as the project manager.

The plan for Crowder’s work, Berry said, includes demolishing the existing spillway and building a new one nearby.

The purpose of a spillway is to serve as a passage for surplus water while releasing it downstream in a controlled way.

The replacement structure will be a labyrinth spillway, which has a zigzag design. The current spillway has an ogee crest design that allows the water to flow over its crest.

In addition, Berry said a “cut-off wall” made out of bentonite, which is a type of clay, will be built in the earthen portion of the dam to fortify it and create a seal that will prevent the penetration of water.

While the groundbreaking date has been set, Berry isn’t sure exactly when actual construction of the spillway and the bentonite wall will begin. There are utility poles in the way, which SCE&G must move.

The target date to finish that task is March 19.

During the early phases of the project, Berry said, Langley Pond will be drawn down, or drained, to the point where only a creek remains.

There also will be a grubbing and clearing operation to remove vegetation and surface debris below the dam where the new spillway will be constructed.

The entire project will take an estimated 18 to 21 months to complete.

“We are going to try to do it in 18, but I think it’s going to take 21 months,” Berry said.

He doesn’t believe the County could have prepared for the project’s launch any quicker because of the time needed to determine what was wrong with the dam, stabilize it, get funding for upgrades, take bids and hire companies to do the design and construction.

“Nobody planned for this to happen, so the money wasn’t in the budget,” Berry said. “We moved as fast as we could move.”

But he does admit that he’s getting a little impatient.

“I’m ready for it to get built,” Berry said. “When it’s finished, it’s going to be beautiful and a real asset for the County.”

People will be able to swim in Langley Pond again.

And “the rowing competitions we used to have will be back in force,” Berry said.

The U.S. Rowing Team used Langley Pond as its home practice facility while training for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

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