Photo By Brannen Parrish | Jerry Dewitt, operations maintenance specialist, Pine Creek Lake Project Office, Tulsa...... read more read more
Project offices in the Red River Area have been working on a dam safety project to repair a slide of the topmost soil layer at Pat Mayse Dam in Paris, Texas since July 28.
Civil engineer technicians, project office maintenance specialists and facility operations staff from various Operations Project Offices are lending their expertise to resurface soil on the downstream embankment of the structure.
Project Office staff from Pat Mayse Lake, Hugo Lake, Pine Creek Lake and the Operations Chloride Control Project at Truscott Lake, are making the repair using heavy equipment and lime.
Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam safety experts attribute the slide at Pat Mayse to changing weather conditions.
"The clay in the top layer expands and contracts," said David Blackmore, Dam Safety Program Manager, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "When it rains, water seeps into those cracks and saturates the top layer of soil, which causes it to separate and slide.”
Civil engineers refer to slides like the one at Pat Mayse as "skin slides." They only affect the outermost layer of soil but repairing them is important to long term dam safety.
"In the short term, a slide is a low-risk issue but when they occur, we continuously monitor them until repairs can be made," said Blackmore.
To address the plasticity of the clay in the embankment, USACE is using a soil stabilization machine to mix lime and water into the top layer of soil.
When appropriate portions of lime and water are mixed into the soil, the compound reacts with clay and reduces the potential for clay particles to expand and contract.
“The process is often used in road construction in Texas, and they’ve had good results, using lime and the soil stabilizer,” said Shae Harrison, Hugo Lake Project Office Manager, Tulsa District, USACE. “It should reduce the potential for future slides.”
Harrison said he expects work to be complete in about one week if weather conditions remain favorable.
| Date Taken: | 08.19.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.19.2025 12:39 |
| Story ID: | 545958 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 40 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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Army Corps of Engineers
