Taylorsville Dam is an earthen embankment located across the Great Miami River in northern Montgomery County near the City of Vandalia. U.S. 40 goes across the top of the dam. Construction of the dam began in February of 1918 and was completed in November of 1921.
The dam has four concrete conduits through the base of the embankment near the left abutment. The conduits are sized to discharge floodwaters at a rate that can be handled by the flood protection levees and channels downstream. The remainder of the floodwaters are temporarily stored behind the dam and released over time. An emergency spillway is located directly above the conduits in the same structure.
Taylorsville Dam Statistics
- 2,980 feet long
- 67 feet high
- 397 feet wide at dam base
- 1.235 million cubic yards of earth in the embankment
- Four concrete conduits
- Each conduit is 40 feet long, 19.2 feet high and 15 feet wide.
- The spillway is 132 feet long.
- Volume of concrete in the conduits and spillway
is 48,000 cubic yards.
- Drainage area above Taylorsville Dam is 1,100 square miles.
Elevation and Hydraulic Information
- Elevation of the dam is 837 feet above sea level.
- Peak elevation Probable Maximum Flood is 829 feet above sea level.
- Spillway elevation is 818 feet above sea level.
- Peak elevation Official Plan Flood (OPF) is 820 feet above sea level.
- Elevation where storage begins is 775 feet above
sea level.
- Peak discharge for OPF is 55,000 cubic feet per second.
- Time to empty the storage area after an Official Plan Flood is five days.
- Water stored to the spillway would inundate 11,000 acres of land upstream from Taylorsville Dam. The 186,000 acre-feet of water would extend along the Great Miami River 14 miles to Ohio 41 in Troy, Miami County.
Directions to Taylorsville Dam
