Building a 20,000 cubic Yard Dam with a Scraper

Building dams for ranchers in western South Dakota. Not getting much rain means they need to dam up draws and valleys for water supply. This dam was the biggest dam we have ever built of 20,000 cubic yards. it took 2 scrapers and a dozer about a month to build. the dugout is 10 feet deep and about the area of a football field and a half. when the dam is full it will have water covering 45 acres of ground

[@logdog8920]

Hi, What state is this in and the nearest large city? As a conservation contractor/earthmover I have worked on many earthen dam projects in west central Wisconsin. They were all funded in part by the government engineered by the Soil Conservation Service from local Countys. The projects were all constructed on farmers land and partially paid for by them. It seems like as the decades went by that less money is available from the governments to work on them. Thanks for the Dam vidja.

[@chrisdee8199]

Great video thanks. I really liked the long distance drone shots to get an idea of the whole project. Is the whole dam made of top soil ? I know that some dams use more impermeable subsoil for the man structure and then cover with top soil so grass can grow better. Maybe here the subsoil is not worth digging down to or not economical to dig.

[@mxrider8393]

Thank you. No it is not made of top soild. We first strip all the top soild where the dam is going to be and where the dugout will be. As top soild rots it allows air pockets where water can flow through and increase the chance for a dam failure. Once we have the dam built to height we then take our pile of top soild and spread it out on the dam to get grass to grow on top to keep it from eroding.