The Cost of Rehabilitating Dams in the United States: A New National Study by ASDSO

n March 2023, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) released a report with updated cost estimates for dam rehabilitation in the United States. This was the result of a 1-year project financed by ASDSO and supported by a task force of experts. The objective was to update the methodology and processes that were developed several years ago by ASDSO to estimate the costs to rehabilitate the nation’s dams. The updated methodology and processes used readily available data to estimate the number of dams in need of rehabilitation based on dam height, age, and condition assessment rating. Data from more than 500 dam rehabilitation projects nationwide, ranging from $10,000 to more than $500 million, were used in determining the total amount of funding needed for dam rehabilitation at a national level.