What's Going On at Lake Barcroft? Gearing Up For an Armoring Alteration.
The Lake Barcroft dam, a pass-through facility located in Fairfax County, is soon to undergo a significant armoring modification on its earthen side slopes. The project will not only bring the facility into compliance with current DCR safety standards but also provide a safeguard against the impacts of potential future upstream development and PMP changes. But even just preparing the design parameters for such an alteration requires overcoming challenges and making important assumptions. This presentation will describe the story of the Lake Barcroft dam from its fuse plug activation in 1972 through the most recent proposed condition H&H modeling in 2025, including what issue the alteration is intended to solve and what quantitative factors it will be designed to withstand. Along the way, the talk will demonstrate the high-resolution 2D modeling completed by GKY that underpins the proposed design.
Author Bio
Alex Partridge, EIT, is a water resources engineer with GKY & Associates specializing in stormwater management modeling. In his three years with GKY, he has led projects of various sizes using modeling tools like SWMM, HEC-RAS, and HEC-HMS and tackling topics from flood mitigation to dam safety to FEMA LOMR applications. He has completed modeling tasks on behalf of various municipal and private clients including Fairfax County, the City of Newport News, and the Lake Barcroft Watershed Improvement District.
