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Going, going, gone

Crews remove final pieces of FD Hydroelectric Dam

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Crews from Rachel Contracting, of St. Michael, Minnesota, work on removing the last of the Hydroelectric Dam Tuesday morning. Workers will be installing a J hook feature further upstream to help create fish habitat. Fort Dodge City Engineer Tony Trotter said crews have until Dec. 31 to complete the work. The exact completion date will depend on river levels and flow, he said.

Some of the last bits of the Hydroelectric Dam that spanned the Des Moines River in Fort Dodge for more than a century began disappearing this week.

Earthmovers splashed into the water to gouge out a 5-foot-tall section of the dam that remained submerged after most of the dam was removed earlier this year.

The majority of the Hydroelectric Dam and the structure downstream that residents had long called the little dam were ripped out in a process that began in January and largely wrapped up in March.

Left behind was the frame of a gate that allowed water to flow through the Hydroelectric Dam. That gate, on the west bank of the river, was left in place as a result of an agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office.

Also left in place was the section that workers are pulling out now. City Engineer Tony Trotter said previously that the section was left there in order to control the release of silt that had accumulated behind the dam.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Crews from Rachel Contracting, of St. Michael, Minnesota, work on adding rocks to the east bank of the Des Moines river to control erosion as part of the Hydroelectric Dam removal project.

”The idea behind that was to slowly release the silt,” Trotter said.

In January, the Fort Dodge City Council hired Rachel Contracting Inc., of St. Michael, Minnesota, to remove the dams. The company is to be paid $274,784 to remove the little dam and $1,186,302.86 to remove the Hydroelectric Dam.

Trotter said the company has until Dec. 31 to complete the job. He added that the exact completion date will depend on the river’s water level and flow.

A master plan for the Des Moines River corridor in Fort Dodge and Webster County that was approved about three years ago called for removing the dams for safety and environmental reasons.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen
Crews from Rachel Contracting, of St. Michael, Minnesota, work on removing the last of the Hydroelectric Dam Tuesday morning. The crews ability to work in the river is dependent on the water flow remaining below 1,500 cubic feet per second.

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