Here is a pic that I had from 2 years ago.
The long-awaited but controversial $6.7-million Springbank Dam rebuilding project is finally underway.
Construction crews were busy in Springbank Park today preparing a staging platform needed to build a temporary bridge below the dam for the work, which will continue this fall and through the winter months.
The project, which will replace the existing stop logs with new steel flap gates operated by hydraulic lifts, will better enable the dam to manage debris and to operate in a safe and effective manner.
The new dam is expected to be complete by April 1 in time to allow fish to spawn. If the work is not completed by then, it will have to resume after the spawn. Even so, the hinged gates won’t be used to fill the river until June 15, or about a month later than normal.
The dam is owned by the city but managed under contract by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority.
The dam, last rehabilitated in 1960, was damaged in a flood six years ago and board of control recommended the project, especially since $2.8 million in federal and provincial funding expires March 1, 2008. The city’s share is $4.2 million.
The dam will cost taxpayers 50-per-cent more than originally estimated and has annoyed those who use the Thames River for recreational purposes.
As a result of the construction, there will be some drawbacks for park — and river — users.
Families who come to feed the ducks and Canada geese near the dam will be unable to do so except on weekends because it is part of the construction zone.
The roadway leading to the dam will also be closed during the week. In addition, the Thames River is impassable at the Springbank Dam for boaters and a safety rope has been placed across the river to help those who get too close to the dam.
Ugo DeCandido, an engineer with the city, said the work is going to be “a huge challenge" for contractor Taylor McLean Construction Ltd. of St. Marys, to replace four log gates with steel gates.
“These are huge gates,” DeCandido said. “It’s going to take a couple of months before the first gates are in.”
On Tuesday, dump trucks were unloading huge blasted rocks to form a platform for a crane to lift jersey barriers into the Thames River to create a base for a temporary bridge stretching halfway across the river.
Once the bridge is in place, the river will be redirected through the two gates on the south side — flowing under the temporary bridge — allowing for the gates on the north side to be replaced.
When that is completed in December, the two gates on the south side will be replaced.
DeCandido said testing would begin in late February or March.
Rick Goldt of the UTRCA said the start date was established to disrupt recreation activities as little as possible.
That means the 900 members of the London Canoe Club won’t have full access to the river until next June 15 — or later. The date the Springbank Park reservoir is refilled is normally by May 24.
The delay by almost one month is not the fault of the city or construction but the Ministry of Natural Resources, which now says studies indicate fish going up river to spawn later than previously believed.
“Normally, they had use of the park by the May long weekend," Goldt said.
It will be pushed back for the next few years while the city as owners of the dam monitors to ensure fish pass through as they had before. The city is required by the province to monitor the dam to make sure fish passage is still possible.
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