Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 840

Chapter 840: Chapter 276: Operation Begins—Repairing White Water Dam!

The situation was the same as the survey two months ago: the damage to White Water Dam had not worsened and it was still stable.

Cheng Ye paced back and forth to observe a full circle, and quickly settled the overall construction plan in his mind.

First, the flow had to be cut off and diverted to ensure the dam body remained dry during construction. In the Wasteland this was no problem at all—just pick any direction in the vast Wilderness to divert the river, and it didn’t matter even if it flowed into an abandoned village nearby.

After diversion, the carbonized surface of the dam body would be cleaned, C30 concrete would be mixed at the proper ratio and poured in layers, and after a week of curing it could be put into operation.

As for reinforcing the dam body, it only required drilling into the base to plant rebar anchor bolts, then welding the steel bars to the anchors to form a reinforcement mesh. That would easily last a few years; when there was more funding and time in the future, it wouldn’t be too late to demolish the dam and rebuild.

Overall, repairing the dam body would be the most time‑consuming; the rest—updating the spillway gates and replacing power equipment—were technical tasks that could be completed in half a day.

Cheng Ye casually flipped open the tarpaulin to check the labels on the supplies. After going through Davidson’s channel, the industrial district had not only prepared all the materials according to his requirements, but had even provided an extra 15% in reserve, which put him completely at ease.

The only problem was manpower. The original plan was to hire 2 structural engineers and 15 skilled workers, with a construction period of 15 days.

But now all the Satellite Cities were scrambling for construction resources, and Dapo Town had started far too late. The Public Works Bureau’s engineers had long since been snatched up; by the time they could free up their schedules, it would be at least another month or two—almost winter.

After thinking it over, Cheng Ye simply decided to do it himself.

At this moment he opened the panel, clicked into the action function he hadn’t used for a long time, and saw that he only had 60 Action Points.

There was nothing he could do about it. Charging value was scarce in the early stages, and exchanging charging value for Action Points was too much of a loss. Of these 60 points, 41 were ones he had deliberately spent three days grinding: taking advantage of the special “abandon search” mechanic to get double Action Point refunds, which was essentially the same as directly trading charging value for them.

“Once the hydroelectric station is built, and my power growth slows down later, grinding Action Points will be much easier.”

Cheng Ye calculated silently.

This function was originally meant to help a Collector quickly establish a power base and save time, but after he obtained the Collector, he either never had a chance to leave the city or had to deal with Immortal Objects. Only now did he finally have the time to actually get things done.

“Action: repair the hydroelectric station, repair the hydro…”

He silently recited it three times in his heart, and a blue panel suddenly unfolded beside White Water Dam, clearly listing the Action Point cost required for the repair, the breakdown of steps, and the estimated completion time.

[White Water Dam (Lv0; damaged)]

[Description]: A gravity dam passed down from the old era. Its interior is currently severely damaged; the dam surface has carbonized and flaked off, and multiple areas show weathering cracks. Though the core load-bearing structure has not collapsed, its stability is insufficient. It can no longer normally block water flow or operate for production, and urgently requires systematic repair.

[Action directions]:

1. Cut off flow and divert (excavate a new river channel, and use sandbag cofferdams in combination with diversion flumes to guide the current watercourse, clearing the dam body work area and creating a dry, stable repair environment)

Estimated Action Point consumption: 33 (sufficient materials and tools already obtained; point cost reduced)

2. Base layer repair (after cleaning loose slag and carbonized fragments from the dam surface, fill shallow weathering cracks and flaked areas, reinforce rebar, and restore the basic sealing of the dam body)

Estimated Action Point consumption: 81 (sufficient materials and tools already obtained; base surface pretreatment skill check passed; point cost reduced)

3. Functional equipment update (replace the core components of the dam’s internal power unit that have aged and been scrapped)

Estimated Action Point consumption: locked (current conditions do not meet action criteria; please try to obtain construction machinery)

4. Perfect upgrade (modify the structure to improve the hydroelectric station’s production efficiency, increasing its installed capacity to 750 kW and its theoretical maximum output to 1200 kW)

Estimated Action Point consumption: locked (current skills do not meet action criteria; please try to obtain advanced construction skills; please try to obtain construction machinery)

[Collector, please choose an action direction!]

…

“Hiss, cutting off flow and diverting plus base layer repair cost this many points? Added together it’s over a hundred?!”

Scanning the numbers on the panel, Cheng Ye couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air.

For this kind of project dominated by sheer physical labor, the technical threshold was supposedly low; the Action Point requirement shouldn’t have been so exaggerated.

But on second thought, this was work that would originally take 15 workers half a month to complete. Now, with only himself, he could finish it in a very short time; with that in mind, this sort of point requirement actually made sense.

As for the fourth item, “Perfect upgrade,” Cheng Ye merely glanced at it and skipped it for now.

White Water Dam’s current theoretical installed capacity was 300 kW. The industry’s standard loss rate was between 5% and 10%; converted, it could output about 270–285 kWh per hour, with a daily generation of up to 6500 kWh.

This output was enough for him to fully charge the Collector eight times. Even if a portion had to be supplied to Dapo Town, in the early stage the town had no factories and its power demand was inherently low, so it would fully cover his need to use the Collector freely.

Once the town developed later and its electricity demand grew, upgrading the hydroelectric station then would actually be easier to handle.

“Hmm, besides the existing equipment, I’ll also need to add energy storage equipment and transformers…”

Cheng Ye thought to himself. The town’s power demand was intermittent; without a complete grid to support it, he had to rely on storage equipment to “store electricity” in order to ensure stable 24‑hour supply.

By shaving peaks and filling valleys—storing the hydroelectric station’s surplus generation and releasing it during peak demand or when generation was insufficient—he could avoid supply interruptions.

However, all this equipment fell under Happiness City’s controlled materials, and he needed a reasonable justification to apply for them.