Howson Dam in Wingham (BlackburnNews.com photo)Howson Dam in Wingham (BlackburnNews.com photo)
Midwestern

Wingham's Howson Dam to be demolished

A dam in Wingham has been deemed "not repairable" and North Huron council will move forward with a report on how to tear it down.

The Howson Dam has been a staple for visitors and residents travelling over Wingham's Hanna Bridge, and has been the subject of a fight by local residents to save the structure in the hope that it could see another day.

Those hopes were dashed at North Huron's most recent council meeting, when council deemed the structure a hazard and requested staff to begin preparing costing options to vote on.

Reeve Bernie Bailey called Monday's meeting the end of a "40 year journey", noting he would jump off the Hanna Bridge and swim to the dam himself, but once core samples from a recent investigation revealed extensive damage to the concrete structure, council put a halt to a committee investigating possible uses for the dam and will demolish it at a later date.

Bailey says that date has not been determined, but thinks it will be "another year by the time studies are done about how to take the dam down, it's not as simple as just getting a bulldozer in there". 

One reason local residents wanted the dam to remain was to maintain the water level under the Hanna Bridge, and Bailey says "there is nothing stopping any committees from coming forward to see it we can put in a Weir Dam to hold the water level up, but this structure cannot be part of that because of extensive damage".

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