Chimney Hollow Reservoir construction crews hand-placed the first section of asphalt on the main dam on Oct. 15. This 3-minute video highlights the excitement of the first placement. Moving forward, the asphalt will be placed in 9-inch horizontal lifts along the concrete plinth, which serves as the base of the dam, until the dam reaches a height of about 350 feet. Rockfill is occurring concurrently to stabilize the asphalt core. This process will continue for approximately two-and-a-half years and will total over 500 lifts of asphalt.  

Once completed, Chimney Hollow will be one of about 200 asphalt-core dams worldwide, and only the second built with asphalt-core technology in the United States. Chimney Hollow is the first jurisdictional asphalt-core dam (strict regulatory agency oversight) in the U.S. and by far the tallest utilizing asphalt-core technology. 

To learn more about why an asphalt-core dam was chosen for Chimney Hollow and how the technology works, watch this 3-minute video, to see highlights of the testing was done this past summer in advance of the start of asphalt-core construction.