The contractor that had been working to stabilize one of Alabama’s most prominent high-hazard dams issued a statement Thursday expressing concern over the Birmingham regional water utility’s decision to suspend work and contesting the utility’s narrative surrounding the work stoppage.

“While Thalle defers to the owner and engineers regarding the current stability of the dam, the company is concerned that the directive to suspend work was issued given the current state of construction,” reads the statement from Thalle Construction Co., general contractor for a rehabilitation project to strengthen the dam.

Jeffrey Thompson, chief executive of Central Alabama Water, said in a statement Wednesday the contractor paused work Dec. 23 due to the holidays. CAW board of directors Vice Chairman Phillip Wiedmeyer said Tuesday CAW hadn’t given the company direction on resuming work.

But according to Thalle Construction, the company received a stop-work email from CAW on Jan. 2.

“Crews were off December 24 and 25 for the Christmas holiday and returned to the site on December 26, continuing work through January 2, 2026, when the stop-work directive was received,” the company’s statement says.

It goes on to say Thalle requested clarification on several items related to the email telling the company to stop work immediately and did not actively work at the site on Jan. 4 or 5 while awaiting that clarification.

It came Tuesday afternoon via a letter citing funding issues, according to the statement. That’s the day after Thompson said during a CAW board meeting that the contractor had demobilized on Dec. 23 and had not remobilized. Demobilization is the process of removing equipment, materials and personnel from a construction site, typically after work is completed or a contract is terminated.

“At no point prior to the January 2 email from CAW directing us to stop work did Thalle ever demobilize, or intend to demobilize, from the project,” Thalle’s statement reads.

Wiedmeyer confirmed that Thalle’s equipment was still on site and the contractor had not demobilized. Owners of construction projects often pay daily charges associated with equipment and facilities that remain on site when work is stopped. Terms for such charges are typically outlined in contracts.

BirminghamWatch requested from CAW on Wednesday copies of Lake Purdy Dam project contracts with construction contractors and engineers. They had not been received at the time of publication.

A limited number of Thalle workers remain at the site to remove equipment from the face of the dam, according to the company’s statement. That equipment could be damaged if water were to overtop the dam, and its removal should be completed within a few days, the statement reads.

Current State of the Dam

The project to strengthen and reduce leakage from the 115-year-old Lake Purdy Dam began in November 2024 and was supposed to be a four-year project. It was prompted partly by a study showing the dam would not be stable in an extreme flood. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers classifies the dam as high hazard because its failure could cause significant loss of life and property.

In July, work on the dam stopped briefly while the board discussed cost concerns. It then voted to complete phase one of the project, which involves adding concrete buttresses on the downstream side of the dam and installing a micropile deep foundation on the right side of the dam after engineers discovered it wasn’t strong enough to support the buttresses.

Phase one of the project was slated for completion in April. Wiedmeyer said some buttressing work has been done on the left side and center of the dam face. He said no buttressing work has been done on the right side.

“The Lake Purdy Dam is fully intact, and our customers are completely safe,” Thompson said in his statement. “Central Alabama Water has an employee onsite at the dam every day of the year. That person performs visual inspections, maintains the operation of the dam and other duties and immediately reports any concerns to management.”

Per standard operating procedures for water utilities, CAW monitors weather forecasts and releases water from the reservoir to accommodate potential heavy rainfall, the statement continues.

Engineering firms involved in the project, Schnabel Engineering and Arcadis North America, declined to comment about the current state of the dam. Arcadis referred questions to CAW, and a Schnabel project manager said the company’s contract with Arcadis prevented him from speaking publicly about the project without Arcadis’ consent.

One of three independent engineers who examined the dam in November also declined to comment, and attempts to contact the other two have been unsuccessful.

Patrick Flannelly, senior vice president for Arcadis, told the board in July the dam was not safe enough, based on national best practices for dam safety. He also said 20% of CAW customers couldn’t get water from any source besides the Lake Purdy reservoir, and the dam’s failure would threaten lives and thousands of homes in a 40-mile wave stream.

According to a flood study cited in previous board meetings, waters from a probable maximum flood would overtop the dam. That could erode earthen structures on its sides and potentially cause it to fail.

CAW currently has $20 million in liability insurance related to the dam.

Located in southeastern Jefferson and northern Shelby counties, the Lake Purdy reservoir supplies water to residents in Birmingham, Homewood, Hoover, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills.

Future of Project Uncertain, Financial Issues Cited

Wiedmeyer said CAW managers are revising the utility’s 2026 budget and the board would need to act on the updated budget before decisions about the Lake Purdy Dam project are made.  It’s unclear how the project was suspended without board approval.

A state law that restructured the water utility’s board and operations last year gives the CEO full authority to manage the utility’s operations, but this power is subject to the policy directives and governance decisions of the board.

“Central Alabama Water is working to determine the best path forward and expects to make a recommendation to the board in due time,” Thompson wrote in his statement.

The 2026 budget the board approved Dec. 10 includes $22 million to finish the first phase of the project.

“As we stated in December when the board approved the 2026 budgets, management is still evaluating cost savings and plans to present revised budgets in the first quarter of 2026,” Thompson’s statement reads.

The utility’s managers struggled to create a 2026 budget that adequately funds operations and capital projects such as the dam work without raising customer rates.

Wiedmeyer, a retired engineer whose work for Alabama Power involved dam-safety inspections, said the full, four-year project to rehabilitate Lake Purdy Dam should be completed so the dam could withstand the probable maximum flood.

He also said installing a grout curtain, which would fill voids in the limestone rock beneath the dam and is part of phase two or three of the project, is critical.

The rock on which the dam is built is primarily limestone, which dissolves in water and creates cavities underneath the dam, resulting in upward pressure that places an additional load on the structure, Wiedmeyer said during a board meeting in July.