Officials from Rotherham Borough Council officially reopened the project on 25 June, three years to the day since the dam’s original overflow structure collapsed following heavy rains, leaving the Victorian earth-embankment dam wall in danger of failure.
Engineering works carried out at the structure include a new spillway in the centre of the dam wal, replacing the the original overflow structure.
At the time of the incident, Rotherham Borough Council used around 2600 tonnes of limestone to shore up the erosion on the dam wall to make it safe on a temporary basis. The ensuing inspection report then detailed the measures Rotherham Borough Council had to carry out to meet safety standards. This resulted in detailed ground investigations, geotechnical analysis, procurement of specialist consultants for the design of the new spillway, wave protection, the scour pipe and the dam core itself.
Four months later in October 2007, members of the council gave the go-ahead to carry out the rehabilitation work rather than drain the facility.
The detailed technical investigations and design work, including the building of a working model on the new spillway, was carried out by consultants Ove Arup. The spillway work, including a new pedestrian bridge, was carried out by contractors Ringway, who also fitted a new scour pipe, and carried out erosion protection to the embankment and improvements to the clay core of the dam wall.
Ulley country Park will not however not re-open until the 35-acre reservoir has re-filled and the water levels are sufficiently high enough to cover the now-exposed quarry workings and the steep-sided and silt-covered embankments. The timescale will depend on the amount of rainfall over the summer months
