Problems Push Back Repair Deadlines On Zink Dam

Repairs to Zink Dam in the Arkansas River are taking longer than planned and the cost is increasing, but without repairs Zink Lake can't hold water more than three days.

One reason there's not more water in the river is because the gates on Zink Dam aren't working. They were supposed to be repaired by now, but that timeline has been pushed back to January.

A temporary wall keeps water off one of the gates on Zink Dam, while it's under repair.

The gate on the east side is undergoing an overhaul that's turned out to be much more complicated than anyone imagined.

That's because all of the working parts were buried in pits filled water and sand, because the dam can't really hold water.

River Parks Executive Director, Matt Meyer said, “It's filled with water because the seals leak and cylinders are underwater too and we didn't dig that out beforehand to check it, but now that we've done one of them, we pretty much know the condition of the other two.”

The repairs were expected to take a year, instead it's taken all that time to do the first of three.

The job was supposed to cost $840,000; that's increased to $1.1 million.

"By the time we're done with the remediation, the gates and the gate cylinders should last another 35 years like they've already lasted," said Engineer, Bill Smith.

The massive dam worked as designed for about 30 years. It's being rebuilt, but only for the time being.

"We don't know if the repair has to last two or ten years. We'd love to have the $40 million dam, but voters haven't approved that, so we're putting a $1.1 million bandage on the gates,” Meyer said.

Even though the engineers said the repairs are designed to be long lasting, no one knows how long they'll really be needed.

The entire dam will be removed and replaced whenever new dams are finally built.