Overcoming challenges from record rainfalls and record-high temperatures, The Beaver Excavating Company successfully completed the nation’s, and perhaps the world’s, largest upground reservoir featuring a geosynthetic liner. Equally impressive, the project included the longest dam in Ohio and was the largest single-volume earthwork project completed in the company’s 60-year history.
The 850 acre reservoir, which will help supply water to the City of Columbus’ Department of Public Utilities, measures more than 5 miles in circumference along the crest of its 45-foot-high dam and is designed to store more than 9 billion gallons of water. Beaver Excavating’s project work force consisted of 115 pieces of large earthmoving equipment and more than 180 construction personnel on site at one time. At peak production, crews averaged more than 320,000 cy per week working single shift while completing the project’s combined 10 million cy of earthwork.