Why Your Dam Restoration Project Needs More Than a Good Design – 7 Lessons for Dam Owners

Across the U.S., thousands of dams are approaching or exceeding their original design life. Many were built decades ago for purposes like hydropower, flood control, and recreation. But today’s infrastructure challenges look very different. Dam owners must navigate stricter safety regulations, a changing climate, more frequent extreme weather events, and heightened community expectations.

In this blog, I explore lessons learned from modern dam rehabilitation projects, including my experience supporting clients across the country. While each project is unique, several strategies consistently improve safety, efficiency, and long-term resilience. Secord Dam in Michigan, where our team partnered with the Four Lakes Task Force, is just one example where these principles made a difference.

Lesson 1: Make Construction Sequencing Part of the Design

In many infrastructure projects, design and construction are treated as separate steps: engineers complete the plans, and the contractor determines how to build them. But, for dam restoration, how something is built can be just as important as what is being built.

Integrating construction sequencing early in the design process helps minimize risks associated with temporary load paths, water diversion, and foundation modifications. For example, at Secord Dam, rethinking construction staging allowed the team to simplify cofferdam use, improve safety, and reduce schedule risk. Similar approaches can benefit any rehabilitation effort where existing structures remain in service during construction.

Lesson 2: Prioritize Early Field Investigations

Working with aging infrastructure brings inevitable surprises: incomplete as-built drawings, inconsistent reinforcement patterns, unknown material strengths, and variable subsurface conditions. Investing in field investigations early, such as selective demolition, coring, and advanced surveys, can uncover these unknowns before they impact cost and schedule.

On several GEI-led projects, including Secord, our early exploratory work revealed geometry inconsistencies and hidden reinforcement details that would have otherwise required significant redesign mid-project. The takeaway: thorough investigation upfront saves time and reduces risk later.

Lesson 3: Engage Contractors Early

In dam restoration projects, success often depends on how well the design integrates with real-world construction challenges. Engaging contractors early in the process, when the contract allows it, can provide valuable hands-on insights into constructability, sequencing, site logistics, and safety. Early collaboration helps identify potential challenges and refine strategies before they impact cost or schedule.

Even when early involvement isn’t possible, setting up constructability reviews, site walks, and open discussions once a contractor is on board helps bridge the gap between design intent and field realities.

The bottom line: Bringing construction expertise into the conversation as early as possible leads to better-informed designs, fewer surprises during construction, and more efficient, resilient outcomes for dam rehabilitation projects

Lesson 4: Design for Uncertainty and Change

Dam restoration involves working with aging structures, variable foundation conditions, and unpredictable field findings. Successful projects adopt adaptive design strategies anticipating potential unknowns and building flexibility into the plans.

At Secord, for example, reinforcement patterns varied widely from initial assumptions, requiring modifications during construction. By anticipating such scenarios, the team avoided costly delays. The same lesson applies industry-wide: expect the unexpected, and design with contingency in mind.

Lesson 5: Build Collaboration Frameworks That Work

Complex dam restorations succeed when owners, engineers, contractors, and regulators work as an integrated team. Clear communication channels, frequent coordination, and real-time problem-solving frameworks allow teams to respond quickly when surprises arise.

On Secord Dam, daily coordination meetings during early construction kept the team aligned, and as the project progressed, we relied on weekly touchpoints and impromptu site discussions to resolve issues quickly.

Equally important were lookahead workshops, where the entire team came together to review upcoming activities, identify potential conflicts, and plan sequencing strategies. These sessions helped iron out discrepancies before they became roadblocks, fast-tracked critical work items, and fostered a culture of collaboration between all parties.

The lesson is clear: when communication is continuous, decision-making is transparent, and the team works together proactively, dam restoration projects can overcome challenges efficiently and stay on track, even in the most complex conditions.

Lesson 6: Maintain Clear and Updated Documentation

Conditions in the field evolve rapidly during dam rehabilitation. Without accurate, up-to-date documentation, teams risk miscommunication, rework, and delays.

Maintaining living record drawings, regularly updated based on field surveys and construction changes, ensures that everyone, from designers to contractors to regulators, operates from the same information. This process helps avoid conflicts, speeds up decision-making, and improves coordination across stakeholders.

Lesson 7: Build for Future Safety and Climate Realities

Restoring a dam isn’t just about meeting today’s performance standards, it’s about preparing for tomorrow’s challenges. Climate change is driving more extreme rainfall, greater variability in hydrologic patterns, and heightened downstream risks. Incorporating flexible spillway capacity, enhancing monitoring and instrumentation, adopting real-time operational strategies, and designing with system redundancy in mind are key to future-proofing hydraulic structures. Projects that integrate these strategies build long-term resilience and protect communities for decades to come.

Looking Ahead

Restoring aging dams isn’t just about replacing structures, it’s about reimagining how these systems serve communities for decades to come. Successful dam rehabilitation depends on early planning, close collaboration, and the ability to respond quickly when conditions change. Owners and engineers who adopt a proactive, lessons-driven mindset are better positioned to deliver safe, resilient, and cost-effective solutions.

As aging dams continue to face the pressures of modern safety standards and climate realities, adopting these strategies will help ensure the long-term reliability of critical infrastructure. If you’re managing a dam rehabilitation effort, my team and I are always available to share lessons learned and help support your next project. Contact me.