Birge Pond dam can't be used for walkway, experts say

The century-old dam at the spillway for Birge Pond can’t be used to support a planned pedestrian walkway along the shore.
Engineers who looked at the dam as part of a $300,000 project to improve the Hoppers-Birge Pond Nature Preserve “don’t feel comfortable” using it for the project, said Brett Poi, a landscape architect for the Meriden-based BL Companies.
Poi said there is “some deterioration” evident, but the main problem is that dam is likely more than 100 years old and there are no detailed plans showing how it was constructed.
Because the dam and its abutments can’t be used, the consultant is looking into the possibility of putting a pedestrian bridge below the dam, through a flat, swampy area.
Though the experts are wary of using the dam as part of the project, they don’t see any reason to be concerned about its fundamental soundness.
“No one has raised any red flags about the state of the dam,” said Poi, who is the project manager for BL Companies.
“That dam’s not going anywhere,” said Jean Letourneau, who has been involved in efforts to protect the nature preserve for two decades.
Letourneau said it was constructed by New Departure long ago out of scrap iron and concrete.
The consultant considered putting a pedestrian bridge over the entire dam so that it wouldn’t infringe on it in any way, but gave up on the idea because it would still involve an extra, complicated approval from state regulators.
The rest of the project consists of overhauling the existing parking lot, adding handicapped accessible paths along the south end of the pond, putting in picnic tables and installing some parking along Ambler Road.
There project also includes improvements to the old gatehouse slab that juts into the pond slightly. New flooring and rails would be put in there, Poi said.
It’s likely that at least a little lighting would be added, but Park Director Ed Swicklas said he’s not sure how much.
Patricia White, a co-chair of the Hoppers-Birge Pond Committee, said lighting would help deter vandalism.
But Swicklas said that’s not clear.
“We have lighting at Rockwell Park,” he said, “and they break the lights.”
Officials hope there may be enough money to make improvements to the walking trails around the rest of the pond.
A continuous trail around the pond would be nice, said Pat Nelligan, a park commissioner.
The city hopes to complete the project this year.

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