Just in time for summer: Swim beach and boat ramp to open Saturday at Boone Dam

There will be a new place to swim on Boone Lake beginning Saturday.And it comes with a small pavilion, a descending path of picnic tables and bathrooms accessible to people with disabilities.The beach temporarily replaces the old swim area while crews work to slow the seepage under Boone Dam's earthen embankment. A new boat ramp will open near the facility on Saturday. Both facilities are north of Boone Dam at 685 Minga Road.The new structures are part of an effort by the Tennessee Valley Authority to increase access to the lake and compensate for the lower water levels required while crews conduct repairs to Boone Dam."The other boat launch ramps were not designed to be used with water levels this low," said TVA spokesperson Jim Hopson, "so they're kind of high and dry — you can't really use them."The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has also worked with TVA to install another ramp at the Sugar Hollow Access Area, near Devault Bridge, and widen a third ramp near Pickens Bridge, which was already in place before the dam repairs began."From the time that we knew we were going to be looking at an extended period of lower water levels on Boone, we knew that we needed to do something to increase access on the lake for those who like to use it," Hopson said.In addition to the installation of the new boat ramp and swim beach along Minga Road, crews have also increased the size of the nearby parking lot to accommodate more people."Summer, especially with school out, is a very big time where people get out and enjoy the lake," Hopson said, "so we worked very hard get these new facilities in place to support that."Work is also continuing on the earthen embankment, where crews have drilled more than 260 holes and filled them with low-mobility grout, a type of thick, malleable concrete designed to block the passage of water between gaps underground.After discovering a sinkhole near the base of the Boone Dam embankment in October 2014, TVA mobilized workers in an effort to prevent internal erosion from undermining the foundation of the dam.In response to the threat posed by the seepage, TVA is preparing to install a large grout wall to block further internal erosion and inject high- and low-mobility grout into the cracks in the earth beneath the surface of the embankment.Workers are in the exploratory drilling phase, ensuring that the spots they're drilling into will be suitable for grout installation, but even now, a lot of the grout crews are injecting into the embankment is contributing to the repair process."A lot of this is actually laying the foundation for the work itself," Hopson said, "so in reality we're in the repair process right now even if we continue this exploratory drilling that's going on on top of the dam. All of the things we're doing right now are going to support the concrete cutoff wall that will be installed."Hopson said TVA is already witnessing improvements in the stability of the embankment, but they recognize that there still is a lot of work left to be done."Obviously we still have a long way to go and we're going to work as hard as we can to get there as safely and quickly as possible," Hopson said, "but we're on the right track and all the data we're seeing proves it."Related Articles:Drill, baby, drill: TVA crews begin phase two of Boone Dam repairTVA: Boone Dam repair on schedule to hit or come in before finish date estimate of 5-7 years - PHOTOS/VIDEO