The Altoona Water Authority has hired a company to inject a special sealant into seepage cracks that have appeared in the newly built concrete spillway weir at the Bellwood Dam.

The appearance of the cracks and seepage is surprising and concerning, but doesn’t signal a threat to the structural integrity of the weir, according to authority officials who spoke at a meeting Thursday.

Authority employees first noticed the issue last winter, in the form of frozen seepage, said authority General Manager Mark Perry.

Based on paperwork shared by officials, the company hired to do the work will “drill and install ports into the leaking cracks and inject” the sealant into the ports.

The sealant expands up to 30 times its initial volume, depending on the amount of an accelerator that is used, according to the data sheet for the sealant.

The sealant has low viscosity, which allows it to enter hairline cracks, according to the data sheet.

It has “excellent elongation,” which allows it to maintain a tight seal in “moving cracks,” according to the data sheet.

It provides “tenacious adhesion to (both) wet and dry surfaces,” according to the sheet.

Workers will remove the ports when the sealing is complete.

The dam contractor will pay for the repairs, according to officials.

“That element of the completed work is unsatisfactory, and I expect it to be fixed,” authority member Jesse Ickes said after the meeting.

The $24.5 million dam project was completed late last year.

It began with a notice to proceed in March 2022.

The authority produced an initial schedule for the project in 2014.

The authority undertook the project based largely on state Department of Environmental Protection findings that the spillway was seriously undersized.

The work was done in tandem with the $11.12 million renovation of the water treatment plant below the dam.

The authority expects that plant to begin operating near the end of this month, said Mark Glenn of Gwin Dobson and Foreman, the authority’s consulting engineer, on Thursday.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.