The Chickamauga Dam is a
hydroelectric dam
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...
on the
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names ...
in
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...
, United States. The dam is owned and operated by the
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...
, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
era initiative to improve navigation and bring
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The dam impounds the
Chickamauga Lake
Chickamauga Lake is a reservoir in the United States along the Tennessee River created when the Chickamauga Dam, as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority, was completed in 1940. The lake stretches from Watts Bar Dam at mile 529.9 (853  ...
and feeds into
Nickajack Lake
Nickajack Lake is the reservoir created by Nickajack Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The lake stretches from Nickajack Dam to Chickamauga Dam, passing through the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Chattanooga. The Tennessee River Go ...
. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
in 2017.
Chickamauga Dam is named for the Chickamaugas, a politically detached branch of the
Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...
whose chief village was located just north of the dam site during the 18th century.
[TVA: Chickamauga Reservoir]
fact sheet, TVA website The tribe's name has also been applied to several streams in the Chattanooga area, as well as an important
American Civil War battle and a
sandbar
In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It o ...
that existed at the dam site prior to its construction.
[Tennessee Valley Authority, ''The Chickamauga Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Planning, Design, Construction, and Initial Operations of the Chickamauga Project'', Technical Report No. 6 (Knoxville, Tenn.: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1942), 1-12, 41-43, 49, 246.]
Location
Chickamauga Dam is located upstream from the mouth of the Tennessee River, just east of downtown Chattanooga at the river's confluence with North
Chickamauga Creek
Chickamauga Creek refers to two short tributaries of the Tennessee River, which join the river near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The two streams are North Chickamauga Creek and South Chickamauga Creek, joining the Tennessee from the north and south si ...
. The reservoir stretches for from Chickamauga Dam to the base of
Watts Bar Dam
Watts Bar Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Meigs and Rhea counties in Tennessee, United States. The dam is one of nine dams on the main Tennessee River channel operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam i ...
, and includes parts of
Hamilton,
Bradley
Bradley is an English surname derived from a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow" in Old English.
Like many English surnames Bradley can also be used as a given name and as such has become popular.
It is also an Anglicisation of t ...
,
McMinn,
Rhea, and
Meigs counties. The reservoir's notable
embayment
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a ...
s include Harrison Bay at its confluence with Wolftever Creek approximately upstream from the dam and the Soddy Creek embayment at upstream. Along with its main Tennessee River channel, the reservoir is navigable across the lower of the
Hiwassee River
The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee Rive ...
, which joins the Tennessee River above the dam.
The
Wilkes T. Thrasher Bridge carries
Tennessee State Route 153
State Route 153 (SR 153) is a state highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It runs from Interstate 75/U.S. Route 74 (I-75/US 74) a few miles east of the I-24 interchange, to US 27 just south of Soddy-Daisy. The route serves as a bypass a ...
across the top of Chickamauga Dam. The road connects the dam to
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from ...
to the south and
U.S. Route 27 to the north. The
Tennessee Riverwalk, a walkway along the Tennessee River, begins at the dam.
Capacity
Chickamauga Dam is a
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...
gravity-type dam long and high.
[ Its hydroelectric generating capacity is 119 ]megawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after Jame ...
s.[ The dam has 18 spillway bays with a combined discharge of .]
A navigation lock
A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water lev ...
allows barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...
s and other boats to travel past the dam, raising or lowering vessels between Chickamauga and Nickajack reservoirs.[
]
Background and construction
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
surveyed the Chickamauga Island site in the 1920s as a possible site for a dam to protect Chattanooga, which had suffered serious flood damage in 1867, 1875, 1886, and 1917, and to enhance navigation along the river. When the Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina ...
(TVA) was formed in the mid-1930s, it assumed control of navigation and flood control operations in the Tennessee Valley. After extensive surveying, TVA chose the tip of Chickamauga Island over several other sites surveyed by the Army Corps in the vicinity. The Chickamauga project was authorized December 31, 1935, and dam construction began January 13, 1936.
The construction of Chickamauga Dam and its reservoir required the purchase of of land, of which were wooded and had to be cleared. 903 families, 24 cemeteries, and of roads had to be relocated. An embankment was built to protect parts of Dayton, Tennessee
Dayton is a city and county seat in Rhea County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,065. The Dayton Urban Cluster, which includes developed areas adjacent to the city and extends south to Graysville.
Da ...
from the reservoir's backwaters, and several roads and buildings in the town of Soddy
Soddy may refer to:
* Alexander Soddy (born 1982), British conductor and pianist
* Frederick Soddy (1877–1956), English chemist
* Soddy (crater), a lunar crater named for Frederick Soddy
* Sod house or ''Soddy'', a house built using patches of s ...
were relocated or modified. A total of 39 bridges affected by the reservoir were either raised or moved.
The navigation lock at Chickamauga Dam was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and was based on the lock design at Guntersville Dam
Guntersville Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Marshall County, in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as pa ...
. The lock was initially , although the dam was designed in a way that allowed a larger lock to be installed if increases in river traffic ever required it.
Chickamauga Dam was completed and its gates closed on January 15, 1940, constructed at a cost of $42,065,000 (equivalent to $ in ). The lock was placed into operation on February 26, 1940, and the first generator went online May 4, 1940. Two recreational areas— Booker T. Washington State Park and Harrison Bay State Park
Harrison Bay State Park is a state demonstration park developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s along the shores of Chickamauga Lake. Opened in 1937, the bay gets it name from the now partially submerged town of Harrison, Tenne ...
— were developed as segregated parks along Chickamauga Lake's shores, with the former originally being for African-Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
and the latter originally being for caucasians.
Renovations
By the early 2000s, the concrete of the original lock had deteriorated due to " concrete growth" caused by chemical reaction
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the chemical transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that only involve the positions of electrons in the forming and break ...
s between its constituent cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel (aggregate) together. Cement m ...
and rock aggregate
Aggregate or aggregates may refer to:
Computing and mathematics
* collection of objects that are bound together by a root entity, otherwise known as an aggregate root. The aggregate root guarantees the consistency of changes being made within the ...
. A $375 million project to replace the lock began in 2003. The new lock was scheduled to be completed by 2014. Progress was hampered, however, by lack of funding due to the depletion of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund that finances U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
work on river navigation infrastructure. Some $52 million in additional funding was made available for the project under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (), nicknamed the Recovery Act, was a stimulus package enacted by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in February 2009. Developed in response to the Gr ...
. By 2013, $183 million had been spent, the total estimated cost of the project had grown to $693 million as a result of delays and increasing costs for construction materials, and an additional five years of work was estimated to remain. The existing lock is expected to become unsafe for continued use some time before 2023.
In October 2004 TVA installed a new warning system to alert individuals downstream when the dam is releasing water. The warning measures include strobe lights, signs and alarm horns.
TVA conducts periodic maintenance on Chickamauga Dam using sawcut expansion holes, a type of expansion joint
An expansion joint, or movement joint, is an assembly designed to hold parts together while safely absorbing temperature-induced expansion and contraction of building materials, and vibration, or to allow movement due to ground settlement or seis ...
used in concrete construction. In 2010, engineering contractor S&ME used a Geoprobe drill to open and repair the expansion holes and cut new joints.
Recreation
The Riverpark Area at the Chickamauga Dam has a boat ramp, fishing piers, day-use areas, restrooms, shelter rentals, and walking and biking trails. On the shoals, below the dam, fisherman use conventional and fly tackle to fish for striped bass, large mouth bass, small mouth bass.
See also
* Hales Bar Dam
*Dams and reservoirs of the Tennessee River
The Tennessee Valley Authority operates the Tennessee River system to provide a wide range of public benefits: year-round navigation, flood damage reduction, affordable electricity, improved water quality and water supply, recreation, and economi ...
*List of crossings of the Tennessee River
This is a list of bridges and other crossings of the Tennessee River from the Ohio River upstream to its source(s).
Crossings
See also
*
*
*
*
* {{Portal-inline, United States
* List of crossings of the Ohio River
*
Tennessee River
T ...
*
References
*
External links
TVA: Chickamauga Reservoir
{{Authority control
Dams on the Tennessee River
Dams in Tennessee
Hydroelectric power plants in Tennessee
Tennessee Valley Authority dams
Buildings and structures in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Dams completed in 1940
Energy infrastructure completed in 1940
Historic districts in Tennessee
National Register of Historic Places in Hamilton County, Tennessee
Dams on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee
1940 establishments in Tennessee