See also: Starcke Dam photos
Fact sheet on Starcke Dam
Starcke Dam Web page
MARBLE FALLS -- LCRA staff and Board members joined elected officials and area residents today (Nov. 10) in dedicating 10 replacement floodgates at Max Starcke Dam in Marble Falls. LCRA completed the two-year, $25.4 million project this September as part of its Dam Improvement Program, which targets making improvements at all six of the Highland Lakes dams.
"Today serves as a rededication of this dam and a rededication of our commitment to protecting communities along the lower Colorado River from devastating flooding," said LCRA General Manager Joe Beal. "While providing additional safety to river residents, the new floodgates also will create a safer working environment for LCRA employees when floodgate operations are necessary."
Starcke Dam forms Lake Marble Falls, the fourth in a chain of six lakes that make up the Highland Lakes.
The new hydraulic floodgates can be operated remotely with a push of a button either from the dam's powerhouse or the dam itself. They will add about 60 to 70 years of reliability to the 50-year-old dam's floodgate operations as a result of their new technology and protective coatings. The new gates, which help increase the dam's discharge capacity by about 200 cubic feet per second per floodgate, also have an operating system that communicates with floodgate operators to alert them to potential problems.
Additional work performed at Starcke Dam during the floodgate replacement project included reinforcing the impact area in the streambed just below the dam and removing a rubble pile. The removal of the rubble improves the efficiency of the dam's hydroelectric generators and eliminates a safety hazard to anglers immediately downstream of the dam.
The new 30-ton floodgates, which are 60 feet wide by 15 feet tall, were fabricated at LCRA's Smithville Rail Fleet Maintenance Facility. Other project components were fabricated by LCRA employees at the Fayette Power Project in Fayette County and by LCRA Transmission Services employees in Austin.
