|
The crib dam's remains loom over the free-flowing Rappahannock River upstream from Embrey Dam the morning after E-Day. |
Now that Fredericksburg's Embrey Dam is breached, the formidable job of dismantling the rest of the massive concrete structure begins.
Army divers on Monday took out about 130 feet of the dam, but the vast majority--another 640 feet--must be torn down by a contractor over the next 18 months or so.
About $2.5 million in federal funds have been appropriated each year for the past few years for the dam-removal project. The total price tag is expected to be about $10 million.
Brian Rheinhart, the project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Norfolk, said yesterday that bids for the next phase of the project will go out next month.
To facilitate restoration of the Rappahannock River, a road will be built from the sediment containment area on the Fredericksburg shore to the dam.
"That should get started sometime in April," said Rheinhart.
Prior to the dam breach, 250,000 cubic yards of sediment was dredged from behind the dam and deposited in the containment area behind the Bragg Hill Apartments.
This spring, work will begin to plug the upper end of the Rappahannock Canal. The canal was fed by the water behind the dam.
Now that the water source to the canal is gone, the corps plans to pump water into the lower end of the canal from the tidal portion of the Rappahannock. The water will be aerated so that it will not stagnate, or attract mosquitoes.
Work will get started on the aeration system, to be installed on the canal floor, next month.
Another phase of the project will get started as well. Embrey Dam, the riverbed around it, and an 1855 crib dam, are all now exposed for the first time since 1910. Archaeologists will come in to study and report on both dams. A section of the crib dam, constructed of yellow pine timbers, was breached a couple weeks before Embrey Dam to make way for migratory fish. The crib dam lies a short distance upstream from Embrey Dam.
Pieces of the crib dam have been floating downstream and many of them have been recovered by salvagers who plan to use the old-growth timber.
Volunteers with Friends of the Rappahannock cut some of them into pieces and affixed with plaques to commemorate the dam breach. Another company, Historical Woods of America Inc., has been salvaging some of the wood for furniture, picture frames and other uses.
Since the breach, the curious have wandered down the canal path to the dam for a closer look.
Friends of the Rappahannock, meanwhile, is offering tours to explain the dam project Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 3 p.m. The tours start at the base of the dam, near FOR headquarters off Fall Hill Avenue, to the sediment containment area, and down to the river near the Interstate 95 bridges.
"Mostly, people want to see the new river," said John Tippett, FOR's executive director.
Preregistration is required and the cost is $8 a person, $16 for a family of four.
Between March 1 and June 30, no contractors will be allowed in the river, to accommodate the annual spring fish run.
By early March, herring and shad will swim up the Chesapeake Bay and into the Rappahannock to spawn. For the first time in 151 years, they will have access to the main stem of the upper Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers above Embrey Dam, and tributaries.
Biologists say the fish will have access to an additional 160 miles of spawning grounds.
Rheinhart said the remaining sections of Embrey Dam will be removed by mechanical means beginning sometime after June 30.
No more explosions are planned; cranes and heavy machinery will tear the rest of it down.
That job is expected to last well into 2005. Stabilization of the new, three-quarter mile section of riverbank will be the last task.
The whole project is scheduled for completion by February 2006, but could be done sooner, Rheinhart said.
Within a couple of years, the river should reclaim its natural banks in the affected area. The only remnants of the dam to remain are historic canal locks and stonework on either side of the river.
To reach RUSTY DENNEN: 540/374-5431 rdennen@freelancestar.com
