WIRTZ DAM FLOODGATE REPLACEMENT

Horseshoe Bay, Texas

Replacing floodgates on a working dam is a tightly managed process. Massman’s careful attention focuses on keeping the dam functional during floodgate replacement. Wirtz Dam is a working Central Texas dam completed in 1951 that creates Lake Lyndon B. Johnson (Lake LBJ) on the Colorado River. It is managed by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) which contracted Massman Construction to serve as the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) to replace the ten original floodgates, gate-lifting hoists, and hoist bridges.

Wirtz Dam is one of six dams on the Highland Lakes, which provide water for more than 1.4 million people. Each dam has hydroelectric turbines that help power the Texas grid.

The new 120,000-pound steel floodgates are 32 feet tall by 50 feet wide. Installation work is being done by Massman’s fleet of Liebherr and Manitowoc cranes, construction barges, and tugboats. 50-foot-long steel bulkheads hold back water from the gate bay when it is time to replace that gate.