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Today I announced that the Mill Pond restoration has begun in earnest and the dam will be completely demolished over the next few weeks. The flowing river has now been isolated in a 25-foot wide bypass channel allowing demolition and reconstruction of the new river channel to occur. With the Pulaski Street dam removed and a section of the Mill Pond dam removed, there is an unobstructed flow in Mill River for the first time in our lifetimes.

The benefits of the Mill Pond restoration include the avoidance of future dredging costs estimated by the Army Corps of Engineers at $1.5 million; flood reduction downtown as the 100-year flood in the future will be contained in Mill River Park; and habitat restoration as over 4 miles of freshwater spawning habit will become available to threatened species of river herring. The economic development stimulus is substantial as well as the blight of the deteriorated Mill Pond is removed from surrounding properties.  A section of the dam at the mouth of the bypass channel was removed in August. The balance of the dam will be breached to allow the pond area and sediment to dry. Completion of demolition will follow.

Over two hundred panels of steel sheet piling have been driven into the river bottom between Broad Street and Main Street to create the bypass channel. Individual sheets are driven 15 feet or more into the ground. Where bedrock prevented driven sheets to be installed, another means of cutoff was provided. With the river now fully diverted into the bypass channel, dredging of the larger, now dry, Mill Pond area will occur along with grading of the new flood plain.

You can follow the progress of the river restoration with monthly videos made from time-lapse photography at www.millriverpark.com. Periodically they will be updated to show the progress of construction. The current video shows the installation of the sheet piling. The pilings will be removed after the river is finally diverted into the newly constructed permanent channel. The video of the dam demolition will be posted later in September.