Today the Ohio Controlling Board approved a funding request by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for reinforcing the Tuscarawas River Diversion Dam in Portage Lakes State Park.
Jake Preston, a project manager with ODNR, says the dam was built in the late 1950s and does not meet current safety standards.
PRESTON: "Essentially what we're gonna do is place roller-compacted concrete over top of the earth-fill embankment, and what that does is if there was a storm event that would come through and cause the dam to over-top, it would protect it from eroding away the embankment and losing the reservoir upstream."
ODNR has been doing infrastructure projects around the state to bring more dams into compliance.
Some of the money from this project will also go toward renovating a bridge on Harrington Rd in Akron.
The dam project will get started in August and is scheduled for completion by December 2014. But Preston says he hopes Harrington road will be open in time for next summer's Bridgestone Invitational, an annual golf competition held in Akron.
