Rebuilding West Valley’s spillway: A model for complex project delivery
At the West Valley Demonstration Project in Western New York, a newly reconstructed spillway is doing work most people will never see: safely directing stormwater away from a critical environmental-remediation site.
The Lake 1 Auxiliary Spillway Improvement Project, completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District and its partners, replaced a deteriorating turf-based auxiliary spillway with a reinforced-concrete structure designed to withstand high-velocity storm flows. The project supports ongoing remediation work at the West Valley Demonstration Project, or WVDP, while helping protect the site’s lake-and-dam system, nearby waterways and surrounding community.
The work also offers a model for delivering technically demanding infrastructure projects with multiple stakeholders: start with rigorous engineering, identify risks early, establish clear roles and maintain open communication from design through construction.
WVDP is in West Valley, New York, about 35 miles south of Buffalo. The project site is owned by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, or NYSERDA. The U.S. Department of Energy leads the ongoing cleanup mission at the site, which includes decontamination and decommissioning activities.
For more than 40 years, the WVDP has been a cornerstone cleanup project in the West Valley community. Its work is intended to safely remediate the project premises and ultimately return the property to New York state. The Lake 1 Auxiliary Spillway Improvement Project supports that long-term mission by providing reliable water management needed to sustain ongoing cleanup work.
A system built for a changing mission
The spillway is part of a larger lakes and dams system constructed in 1963 to provide water for the former Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessing facility. The reservoirs historically supplied clean water for cooling systems, industrial needs and potable water.
Today, the system continues to support WVDP operations, particularly water management and industrial needs associated with remediation. While the site’s water needs have evolved during the current demolition phase, the auxiliary spillway system remains essential during storms.
Excess water from Lake 2 must move through a canal to Lake 1 and then through the Lake 1 spillway. That path helps prevent water from backing up into Lake 2 and potentially overtopping the Lake 2 dam.
“While the demand for large volumes of water for reprocessing operations has ceased, the lake and dam system remains vital for site management and continued operation,” said Anthony Lechanski, federal project director with DOE. “The lakes, and specifically the spillway improvement project, now primarily serve to manage water, ensuring proper conveyance to the Lake 1 Spillway to prevent flooding.”
Reliable water management also supports the wider cleanup mission. The lakes-and-dams system helps maintain conditions needed for safe site operations, including remediation activities and rail operations, while reducing the risk that stormwater issues could delay progress toward the next phase of cleanup.
An engineering challenge
The original Lake 1 spillway was lined with turf-reinforced geotextile matting, also known as TRM. A later repair used a similar material, but neither withstood the water velocities generated during significant storms nor prevented soil erosion.
This created concerns about safe maintenance access and sediment reaching Buttermilk Creek, a protected trout stream at the foot of the spillway that ultimately connects to Lake Erie.
USACE was asked to evaluate alternatives.
Through an architectural-engineering contract, the Buffalo District completed a hydrologic and hydraulic evaluation of the system, analyzing how water would move through the spillway during different storm events.
The evaluation confirmed that water velocity would exceed what turf or earthen construction could withstand.
After comparing alternatives and costs, the team selected the most durable solution.
“Concrete was the way to go,” said Paul Heist, the former USACE project manager. “It was certainly the most expensive, but [West Valley’s] thoughts were, ‘Instead of coming back and repairing this overflow spillway every five, 10 years, let’s do this once and we’re done.’”
The completed structure is a 246-foot-long reinforced concrete spillway built on a 14-degree, 25% grade slope between six-foot-high side walls. When Lake 1 reaches a designated level, training walls direct water into the spillway and toward Buttermilk Creek.
Heist said a concrete spillway on a 25% grade is not a typical project.
“Usually, you only see stuff like this where you have poor soil conditions, like out west where you have sandy, non-cohesive soils,” he said.
The project required excavation of 11,270 cubic yards of material and placement of 1,956 cubic yards of concrete. Construction crews worked on the steep slope using specialized small articulating dump trucks with rotating cabs to move excavated material and deliver concrete in a controlled sequence.
By the bottom of the slope, the water can move at about 30 feet per second—fast enough to damage most materials other than concrete or heavy stone.
Just over 55 feet down the slope, water reaches a flip bucket—a structure that reduces water velocity. A typical flip bucket design that redirects the flow of water upward would have resulted in significant erosion of the bank of Buttermilk Creek. Therefore, a staggered concrete baffle block design was utilized with 105 concrete blocks installed in two tiers. This design diffuses the water, mixes it with air and reduces its energy, successfully reducing water velocity to a manageable level and preventing erosion.
Building for long-term value
While concrete design costs more than turf-based alternatives, it offers durability and lower long-term maintenance needs.
With a design life of at least 50 years and a cost of about $5 million to construct, the spillway will support the remaining life of the remediation mission at WVDP.
The Buffalo District also identified ways to reduce project costs while preserving technical rigor.
Because the project required extensive environmental work, permitting and complex hydrologic and hydraulic analysis, USACE contracted for architectural-engineering design. The Buffalo District then provided design, bid and construction-phase services and oversight using its in-house technical capabilities. Heist said that approach saved DOE more than $200,000.
Managing risk through coordination
The engineering challenge was only part of the project.
Unlike a typical USACE project involving one or two closely involved agencies, the spillway required coordination among DOE, NYSERDA, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Dam Safety Team, an onsite operations-and-maintenance contractor for WVDP and the project’s construction contractor.
NYSERDA owns the site. DOE manages the broader WVDP remediation mission. DEC provides dam safety oversight. USACE brought engineering, acquisition, construction-management and quality-assurance expertise to the project.
The project team also had to navigate environmental considerations, permitting requirements, specialized construction methods and a demanding schedule.
DOE identified several risks that could have delayed work or increased costs: unforeseen subsurface conditions, regulatory requirements, communication breakdowns among participating organizations and potential supply-chain disruptions.
The team addressed those risks before and during construction.
Existing soil borings, geophysical surveys and surface investigations helped inform project planning. Early engagement with design and regulatory organizations supported the permitting and review process. Regular interagency and contractor meetings helped maintain alignment on safety, quality, schedule and field conditions.
Weather was another major concern.
Rain could have created hazardous conditions on the steep spillway slope and damaged the work area at its base. The team benefited from generally dry summer conditions and focused work to take advantage of every available day. They also installed a cofferdam and instituted a water drawdown campaign to reduce the potential impacts of un-forecasted severe storm events.
Safety and communication remained central throughout construction. After early staffing challenges, USACE and DOE coordinated to ensure personnel from either agency were available to monitor work each day. The project was completed without accidents or lost-time incidents.
“The contract was delivered on time, according to a very aggressive schedule,” Heist said. “We had great communication amongst the ownership and their involved parties, along with the contractor.”
For Lechanski, that level of coordination was essential to the project’s outcome.
“This partnership exemplified how high expectations, when met with professional execution and dedicated collaboration, can lead to the successful completion of critical infrastructure projects within a highly regulated environment,” he said.
Construction was completed in October 2025, followed by site restoration in 2026.
A demonstrated solution
The project provides more than a repaired structure. It helps sustain the overall water-management capability needed at the site while reducing risks associated with erosion, dam safety and stormwater management.
“The Lake 1 Auxiliary Spillway Improvement Project is critically important because it directly supports the long-term completion of the West Valley Demonstration Project’s site remediation goals and positively influences the property’s future,” Lechanski said.
Although the spillway is located on a portion of the site not generally accessible to the public, its role reaches beyond the project boundary. Reliable operation helps protect downstream waterways, supports continued remediation work and demonstrates the care taken to manage the site safely and responsibly.
The system has already carried water several times as designed since construction was completed.
For the Buffalo District and its partners, the project shows that complex work succeeds when technical rigor is matched by shared goals, active stakeholder engagement and consistent communication. The result is a durable structure that supports a critical cleanup mission while helping protect the environment and surrounding community.
This information includes elements of AI-generated content, which were reviewed and edited by relevant DoW personnel to verify appropriateness and compliance with DoW policies and guidance.
The Buffalo District delivers world-class engineering solutions to the Great Lakes region, the Army and the nation to ensure national security, environmental sustainability, water resource management and emergency assistance during peace and war. Learn more at http://www.lrd.usace.army.mil/buffalo.
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