Lake Dunlap?

Has construction started on the dam?

I guess no one knows. GBRA hasn't made any announcements.

Does anyone even fish what is left of the lake?
Never hear any reports so I guess that's a secret as well!

I'm still convinced the whole thing of "fixing the dams" is nothing more than a scam by GBRA. When Lake Wood Dam failed, GBRA held a new conference at Lake Wood and said it would take about $3 million to repair it and they would start immediately. Well, that turned into 5 to 8 million after engineering, and now they say $28 MILLION to repair the dam.

A sheet of common plywood is $45 at Home Depot. A common 8ft 2x6 is $12.
Concrete has gone way up.

Before long a small house on a common 1/4 acre lot will cause a 1/2 million.

Prices are NOT going up. That is the illusion. The value of the dollar is going down.
Big inflation is going on.

Increase from $3,000,000 to $28,000,000? A $25,000,000 increase? That is almost 10 times what was said at their press conference. I don't think that is inflation, it's a scam.

I had heard that they were not going to fix the Wood dam??

Lake Wood is gone forever. GBRA wants Gonzales County to come up with $56 MILLION to repair Lake Wood and Lake Gonzales dams and then just turn it over to GBRA to own and not maintain till the next failure.

I really feel bad for the homeowners but you'd have to be dumb as a box of rocks to agree to that deal. That's one of those sweet "All of the Profits, None of the Obligations" type of deals.

Exactly. And that is what Lake Dunlap residents agreed to. And when they agreed to that idiot deal, they killed the rest of the lakes. There will be more dam failures and GBRA will simply say take the Dunlap deal or no lake.

Not to mention the Gonzales County tax payers picking up the bill so lakeside property owners can enjoy their waterfront property.
There is always another side to that coin!

Thankfully our county commissioners court tabled the proposal from GBRA with no discussion.

Just an FYI. I live on Dunlap and believe we volunteered dollars way too early but like Dunlap. I believe Lake Wood had a public boat ramp anyone could use so everyone in the county and beyond would and could benefit. GBRA is to blame for this entire mess for not maintaining the lakes and dams since 1963. GBRA is the state of Texas regardless of declaring themselves a "subdivision of the state of Texas". The General Manager of GBRA is appointed by the Governor. GBRA contributes to 5 non profits where many of GBRA managers sit on the boards of these non profits.

Dam construction has not started since the low bidder (by $2m) has filed suit against the second low bidder and GBRA. GBRA submitted a request for summary judgement last week so it is now in a judges hands. If this goes to court, it will take some time to get to the case due to the backlog from COVID. We will see.

FYI....that "public boat ramp" was a fee ramp. So we would have had to pay twice to use it.

The ramp at lake wood was at a GBRA park and you had to pay a fee to use the ramp! I think that was the only ramp for lake Wood also. As for Dunlap, I got a feeling that it will be awhile before the lake starts filling up again. I hope I am wrong!

I contacted a friend of mine that lives on Dunlap, water front property. They told me that ground break on dam construction will begin April 29, 2021.
Normal weather projection for completion is 24 months.

Actually there was a free TXDoT ramp up the river above Lake Wood. It was at Cost, behind the monument to the First Shot of the Texas Revolution. It was about a five minute run to the head of Lake Wood.
What's a shame is, a year or two before the dam failed, GBRA built a new ramp that was a sweet ramp.

That is good news Doc! Hope they start on April 29th.

Got this update from my friend with the house on Dunlap.

“Well as we speak things have already changed.
Apparently they will not be breaking ground on the 29th and the lawsuit is still pending.
Someone on the water district board jumped the gun and announced things that were not yet ready to be announced.”

Have they "broken ground" yet?

No, but last I heard they drained the lake prepping for it!

All of this sorta sounds like ERCOT. Both of these are around to maintain something and neither did. Then when the !@#$ hit the fan, neither think they are responsible. That's a great deal.

The lake is at the same level it has been since the dam failure. There was a town hall meeting last night that we did not attend. A private ground breaking has taken place and apparently, a coffer dam is going to be built in front of the existing dam in the coming weeks and construction will really pick up the pace.

There is no new information that I am aware of concerning the low bidder and the lawsuit against HB Zachry and the GBRA. All is quiet on the Sutter lawsuit against GBRA also.