Historic Piece Of Equipment Removed For Repairs At Keystone Dam

A piece of Green Country history is in repair right now at Keystone Dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working on one of the units that generates power.

The generator unit at Keystone Dam is 22 feet in diameter. The rodder would normally sits in that area, but for the first time in 52 years it's been pulled out to be repaired.

There are two hydropower generators at Keystone Dam; together, they produce enough electricity every 15 minutes to power about 70,000 homes.

The units have been through thousands of inspections and minor repairs since they were installed more than five decades ago, but the most recent checks uncovered a several cracks to the rodder walls.

The cracks are so small you can barely see them, yet big enough they could have caused big problems down the road - like splitting and starting a fire.

The best option for a successful repair was to pull the 177-ton piece of equipment from the unit.

The Corps says everything is going smoothly as workers use special engineering techniques to weld the cracks.

In the meantime, the other generator is going strong.

The Corps expects to have the rodder repaired and back in full service by October 24th.

The generators are there only to produce power, which means none of the dam's floodgates are impacted by the repair.