Trending
LOCK HAVEN -- Tidlow Dam, located in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, will be getting needed repairs sometime next month.
Lock Haven City Council awarded a contract for the repairs to Greenland Construction in Clearfield at a cost of up to $393,000.
Work will be paid for through a 2018 borrowing package, City Manager Gregory Wilson said.
"As part of the 2018 city borrowing package, $629,000 was borrowed for the river-related projects of which $300,000 was estimated for repairs to the Tidlow Dam and $329,000 for improvements to the levee including updating the lighting and resurfacing the walkways," Wilson said.
"Since the Tidlow project came in at $393,000, that will leave only $236,000 in the borrowing toward levee repairs," he continued.
The lighting project came in under budget at only $14,000 due to the city not having to replace the pole, he said.
The repairs will be made to the impact walls of the dam, city Public Works Director Anthony Stopper said.
"These are the concrete barriers that create the "dam" effect," Stopper said. "Currently there are a few deficient concrete blocks causing a small whirlpool you can see on the upstream side of the dam."
Stopper explained that the dam sees a lot of wear and tear due to ice, trees, brush and other debris making its way down the river. This causes small deficiencies in the concrete blocks or even leads to them breaking apart.
"We will not know what other repairs will be needed in the future until the water has been lowered and we can assess the dam itself," he said. "According to our engineer, Gwin Dobson & Foreman, this is a typical process for this type of built dam for future work."
A start date for the repairs hasn't been set but will take place sometime after Labor Day when crews begin lowering the water levels, Stopper said.
"The way this is done is to "smash" the existing concrete blocks. They do have eye bolts and holes in them to hook chains, but over the years that metal has rusted and is not safe to latch on to," he said. "The effective way is to pick or smash the blocks with an excavator and then clean up the wreckage."
A rough estimate of repairs is planned for September through March of 2020. A more solid time line will be created once Stopper has had time to meet with Greenland and Gwin Dobson, he said.