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The cost for fixing privately-owned Lake Pye to prevent 15 homes from flooding downstream has risen dramatically.

The original cost estimate of $750,000 has more than doubled to approximately $1.6 million due to a variety of changes to the project requested by the state's Safe Dams program, according to a memo from the city's consulting engineers.

The Fayetteville City Council plans to fix the lake's dam and make other improvements with funds from the monthly stormwater fees it has been collecting.

Integrated Science and Engineering has provided an alternative to the original plan which will cost significantly less than the ballooning original plan. It would eliminate any permanent pool to the lake but provide storage of rainwater during flood events, ISE's Ron Feldner said in a memo to city engineer Don Easterbrook.

The estimated price tag of $834,000 is just over half the latest estimate for the current version of the project. That cost includes replacing the downstream culverts with larger ones.

This alternative plan would eliminate the need for dredging activities which are necessary to implement the current plan.

"Alternative number two provides the greatest cost-benefit ratio in terms of construction cost and flood control/protection since the flood storage capacity within Lake Pye is maximized," Feldner wrote in the memo.

Feldner also indicated that if both projects would be phased in, alternative two would have a "more significant reduction in flooding" after completion of the first phase than the current expanded plan would have.

City officials are meeting with Safe Dams representatives Monday to get their input on how to proceed, Easterbrook said.

"We'll see how they feel about it and go from there," Easterbrook said.

Safe Dams has classified Lake Pye as category 1, meaning if the dam were breached it could cause at least one person downstream to die.

A third alternative, shrinking the height of the dam and reducing the lake's storage level, was considered. But it was determined that might result in downstream flooding similar or worse than the existing conditions, Feldner said in the memo.

Part of the cost increase for the original improvements to Lake Pye was due to doubling the amount of dredging for the project and building a more extensive normal and emergency spillway than originally planned, according to an ISE memo to Easterbrook. Safe Dams also wanted the city to demolish a house to accommodate removal of the dredging material.

Although 16 homes downstream from the lake are in the 100-year flood plain currently, 15 would be removed with the improvements planned for the lake. The other home, located on Cornwallis Way, would have some on-site changes to protect it from the flooding of Gingercake Creek, the tributary the lake flows into.

If the city doesn't repair the dam to Lake Pye, the Safe Dams program could require the dam to be breached to alleviate the possible loss of life from a flood if the dam were to fail.