Joe P. wrote: <Here in NJ there are a couple of lowhead dams which <are way too wide for this one to be useful. One of <these was "refurbished" after it killed three people <in the first year of its existence. Where is yours, <out of curiosity? <Joe P. It's in the middle of Fargo, ND. There are two other lowheads: one North, one South. The "refurbished" one has been filled in (on the downstream side) with varying size boulders. The huge roller is gone, and the resulting wave train is fun to play in. The boulders are fairly smooth so passage across the rock field is manageable, but I forsee big troubles in the future with logs and such getting jammed in the cracks. scary. Hey, Joe P. How was yours "refurbished?" Phil Huck thekayaker_at_yahoo.com _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free _at_yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
>>Hey, Joe P. >How was yours "refurbished?" > Originally it was a 200 ft wide dam about 4-5 ft nearly vertical drop over it. I posted a photo it on the NE Paddlers' Message Board under "Safety" if you want to look at it. So you had a strong recirculation with the backwash returning from nearly 20-30 ft out. To make it even worse, there were tiny spillways at each end so if you had worked your way to the shore the current would push you away. The modifications consisted of nesting gabions (wire cribs filled with rock) installed as steps across the face of the dam. This formed a gentler slope and far less recirculation. I think they also put some gabions below just there to break up the recirculation. I still wouldn't run this, but I think you'd now have a chance to escape it. What we didn't know until the reconstruction was being done was that the engineers had originally installed a low wall completely across the river about 100 feet downstream. As it was underwater, it actually Increased the backwash, elevating the boil line about a foot above the normal water level. You can see this in the posted picture. Why they did this is unknown, but it sure made for a very efficient killing machine. The dam was intended to hold back water for the intake of a water treatment plant. There is also a fish ladder here and perhaps someone thought the low wall would offer a quiet spot for fish to regroup before heading up/down the ladder. Joe P. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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