page_title: Hope Mills Dam
section_title: 2003 failure and reconstruction
hierarchical_section_title: Hope Mills Dam / History / 2003 failure and reconstruction
caption_attribution_description: English: A labyrinth chute spillway on the Hope Mills Lake in Hope Mills, North Carolina. Fish ladder at left.
context_page_description: The Hope Mills Dam, also known as Hope Mills Dam #1, is a concrete gravity dam on Little Rockfish Creek in Hope Mills, North Carolina, USA, which created Hope Mills Lake. Four different dams were built on the site including the current one. The first dam, of rock-crib design, was built in 1839 to power local cotton mills. The second was an embankment dam built in 1924 for powering the mills and later to maintain the lake's water level. Both previous dams failed from flooding. Then in June 2010 a leak was discovered and the lake was drained. The current dam was completed in early 2018 and water to be impounded in January but rainwater filled the dam before water even needed to be impounded.
context_section_description: In late May 2003, over Memorial Day weekend, heavy rains caused the embankment dam to give way and also destroyed 30 feet (9.1 m) of the nearby Lakeview Road. About 40 homes and 1600 people downstream were evacuated as water from Hope Mills Lake rushed down the creek causing $2.1 million in damages before making its way to the Cape Fear River. One of the floodgates on the dam had failed to open because of the pressure exerted by the flood waters, which helped push water over the top of the dam. Later in 2003, Lakeview Road was repaired and plans for the repair of the dam were underway. After four years of fund and permit requests, construction on the new 14 million dollar Hope Mills Dam began in March 2007.  Crowder Construction Company was awarded the contract to construct the dam along with designs from Mactec, Morrison Engineers. The new dam would essentially be a concrete labyrinth-spillway that would expand the dam's ability to discharge flood waters. The new dam would be 600 feet (180 m) longer and would incorporate a fish ladder as well. Construction of the new Hope Mills Dam was complete in June 2008 and the lake was again full by August.
caption: The reconstructed dam in 2010
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