At times, the machine looked as if it would be swamped by the swirling water as it battered the concrete dam.

Friday’s work was the opening phase of a project that will remove both the little dam and the Hydroelectric Dam farther upstream. The demolition job will end years of debate about what to do with the Hydroelectric Dam.

The little dam could be gone in two weeks if the weather allows work to proceed, according to City Engineer Tony Trotter.

Rachel Contracting Inc., of St. Michael, Minnesota, has contracts to remove both dams. The company will be paid $274,784 to remove the little dam. It will be paid $1,186,302.86 to take out the Hydroelectric Dam.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
With the remains of what appears to be someone’s lost yellow kayak stuck behind the structure, crews from Rachel Contracting, of St. Michael, Minnesota, begin demolition work on the little dam south of the Kenyon Road Bridge on the Des Moines River.

Crews from the company arrived in Fort Dodge at about 9:30 a.m. Friday and began tearing out the dam at about noon.

Trotter said an accumulation of sediment behind the Hydroelectric Dam prompted the company to start on the little dam first. He said with the little dam gone, that sediment will be able to flow freely downstream when the Hydroelectric Dam is demolished.

”This is the first step to allow the backed-up sediment to flow down,” he said.

The chunks of concrete that once made up the little dam will be positioned on the river banks to prevent erosion, he added.

It’s not clear when the crews will start working on the Hydroelectric Dam.

Trotter said the water near that dam is ”artificially high” because of ice jams. He said the ice will have to break up and the water level will have to drop a bit before work can start.

The dams are being removed for safety and environmental reasons. A 2016 master plan for the Des Moines River in Webster County called for both of them to be removed.

The City Council had finally resolved to demolish the dams and was ready to award contracts to do so during its Dec. 10, 2018, meeting. However, at about 4:30 p.m. that day, a representative of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers called a consulting engineer working for the city and informed him that permits for removing the dams would not be issued because the State Historic Preservation Office had concerns about the plan.

Meetings between city officials, the Army Corps of Engineers and the State Historic Preservation Office followed.

As a result of those talks, city officials agreed to leave in place the frame of one gate of the Hydroelectric Dam.