Pawlowski's Dam Decision

Mayor Ed Pawlowski is supposed to decide on the fate of the Robin Hood Dam in Lehigh Parkway today, but he's making his decision on incomplete information. The Wildlands Conservancy claims that the dam was built for the USGS creek monitoring tower in 1945, however, there is no documentation to support that statement. On the contrary, there are indications that the dam was probably built in 1941, at the same time as the bridge. The Corp of Engineers established two creek station, the other at S. 10th St. in Fountain Park. That location has no dam, so apparently dams are not necessary to monitor the water. However, it was necessary in 1941 to build temporary dams, called cofferdams, in order to build the Robin Hood Bridge piers. Common sense would indicate that the dam was built at the same time those cofferdams were in place. Why would have the Corp of Engineers built a dam so close to the bridge four years later? This past May, City Engineer Richard Young told Council that the Wildlands had not submitted bridge pier scour studies, nor had any been approved. On Wednesday night, the Wildlands indicated that all approvals were in place. Did they have scour studies done in the meantime, or not, or is Richard Young accepting their statement that the dam was built after the bridge? Wildlands must complete their project before October in order to be in compliance with State regulations. They are exerting pressure on the Administration. If the bridge and dam were built at the same time, the bridge piers were not designed for a deeper channel, which will occur when the dam is removed. Demolishing a significant feature of Lehigh Parkway should not be done lightly, to accommodate an outside organization's timetable.