A.V. Watkins Dam is an earthfill dam approximately 14.5 miles long with a structural height of 36 feet. Located just north of Ogden, Utah, the dam impounds approximately 215,000 acre feet of water and is founded on compressible lakebed sediments of the Great Salt Lake. In November of 2006, a piping incident occurred which nearly resulted in the catastrophic failure of the dam and reservoir. While constructive measures (including a drawdown of the reservoir which greatly impacted storage capacity) were immediately taken to save the dam, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) needed a permanent solution which would effectively reduce the risk of failure below the guidelines established by the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act.

For most of 2007, Reclamation drill crews conducted an extensive program of forensic analysis and geotechnical exploration in the dam embankment and its foundation for several miles on either side of the incident area. In early 2008, engineers decided that the installation of a 5-mile long, 30-inch wide Cement-Bentonite (CB) cutoff wall, along with the reconstruction of the dam embankment through the incident area, would achieve risk reduction goals and allow the reservoir to be put back into full service.

A $17.4 million construction contract for the work was awarded in latter May, and on July 21, 2008, the contractor team of Geo-Solutions (New Kensington, PA) and Nordic Industries (Marysville, CA) began excavating and backfilling the 5-mile long CB wall. After making field adjustments to the CB slurry mix and cresting the learning curve, the contractors were able to continuously produce over 2 cubic yards of slurry per minute and excavate over 9,000 square feet of wall per shift. In addition to the CB wall, the project also included a bio-polymer drainage trench and a new toe drain system.