Bridge almost done, but dam work slow

NORTH CANAAN — A bridge on Lower Road is expected to be completed by the end of this week; but a dam project less than a mile away will not be completed this year.

The renovation of the Samuel Forbes bridge, which spans the Blackberry River, kept the road closed for most of the summer. Only two workers from New England Infrastructure were still there late last week, putting the finishing touches on the outer railing of the north side of the span.

Structural repairs were complete, the crumbling concrete walls refurbished and the roadway over the repaired deck repaved.

Meanwhile, a short way upstream, the same contractor had workers swarming over the dam at the Beckley Furnace, now called the Industrial Monument Dam. The $1.3-million project to refurbish and preserve the 1847 structure, built to harness water power for an iron industry blast furnace, is proceeding as planned. But project Supervisor Rick Watterson said diverting a river is always a difficult job.

Work began on both projects in mid-July. Since then, the dam crew has managed to build a temporary dam, made of large metal beams jammed into the riverbed.

They have also reinforced much of the old stone dam face. They are still in the first phase of the construction work: building a new spillway. This one will have a working gate that can be moved as needed, using a portable motor.

Another major portion of the project is a concrete pour that will create a new, operational dam directly behind the old one. Preparation included dredging out a channel of silt that had built up nearly to the top of the dam.

As much as possible of the old turbine, which long ago replaced the original waterwheel there, will be preserved. The dam is part of now state-owned property and is the site of Connecticut’s only designated industrial monument, thanks to the work of the Friends of Beckley Furnace.

A representative of WMC, the town’s consulting engineer, recently remarked at the site that the turbine could have been made operational as part of the project.

If it had been connected to a generator, it could have provided free lighting for the property, including the learning center established in the old ironworks paymaster’s office, and possibly around the furnace site.

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