The construction project to rebuild the small dam in Hemlock Gorge seems to have just hit a milestone. Like kids in a rainstorm blocking streams of water, the DCR’s construction crew has redirected the flow of the river from the small dam they’re replacing to the larger parallel horseshoe dam.
On my morning walk this morning I saw some new tarp covered construction completely blocking the smaller section of river that forks off over the small dam.
A big new sign on Ellis St announces the official name of the project to all passersby – “Restoration of the Hemlock Gorge Spillway Dike”.
As you c
an see, with this new temporary dam in place, the flow of the river through the spillway as been reduced to a trickle so they can start working on tearing down the old dam and building a new one.
It looks like they dug out all the mud that had silted up in front of the dam and then dumped it on huge plastic sheets elsewhere on the site. I’m curious whether they will then dump that mud back in front of the new dam or haul it away.
There must be a rule in there plan that says they should put a line across the river to keep craft/canoeists away from the work site and potentially damaging the membrane of the temporary dam. So they did this — there’s a line straight across. Makes sense except just to the right of the project is a huge waterfall which would suck up anyone being foolish rather efficiently.
I saw that yellow rope and wondered what it was. It sounds like an old Road Runner cartoon – hang up a detour sign pointing to a waterfall.
Jerry — I don’t know if you’ve ever witnessed the annual canoe or kayak race. They run up to that little section — jump out and haul their canoe over the road. Of course before that, they need to get out to avoid the mill falls.
Not matter how many times you see it, it will always be pretty funny to watch.
I took a close look at the temporary dam today, it’s quite an innovation. A vinyl fabric holding up the Charles River! The river’s about 5-6′ deep there, so there’s lot’s of weight pushing against the material and it’s grid like reinforcement. According to worker’s onsite, its a proprietary product. Very creative.
On another note. The MWRA was there yesterday and today cleaning the graffiti off the bridge. They did a great job, above and below. Someone had very recently made a huge mess and these guys got it down clean. Apparently the last tagger was particularly offensive.
The workers were from the Southborough division of the MWRA , which controls the West side (Needham) to the middle of the bridge. The Newton side to the middle is controlled by the Chelsea division of the MWRA. Don’t you love bureaucracy?
Terry — It was VERY offensive.
Terry – I’m amazed. I saw it all this morning and now – it’s gone.
BTW – I noticed that there’s now a new well trodden path right along the upstream side of the fence. I guess there’s plenty of other folks beside us poking around over there and watching the project unfold.