THIS VIDEO SHOWS the construction crew on the Elwha Dam using explosives Thursday (Oct. 13) to help remove bedrock on the old spillway.
(The video includes a great SLOW-MOTION segment of the blast. More about this video, and the dam removal project, is below. Watch the dam removals via Olympic National Park’s webcams — http://tinyurl.com/damwebcams ) .
THIS VIDEO IS courtesy of photographer/filmmaker John Gussman of Sequim, 360-808-6406 or email jgussman@dcproductions.com.
You can learn more about Gussman’s Elwha film work at http://www.elwhafilm.com
Gussman is in the process of producing a film on the dam removals. “I am very committed and passionate about this project, and so far I am funding this film completely on my own,” says Gussman.
Contributions toward Gussman’s project can be made http://www.elwhafilm.com
DAM REMOVAL — Contractors are creating a diversion channel on the dam’s left side (looking downstream). Explosives are being used to remove the final layers of the left spillway’s concrete foundation and bedrock to form the downstream end of the diversion channel.
Transmission lines associated with the dams and power plants are also being removed.
Work at both the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams will continue through the end of October.
Contractors will shift to other activities beginning Nov. 1 when one of three annual “fish windows” begins, meaning that dam lowering and sediment release may not occur during critical periods for the Elwha River’s salmon and steelhead populations.
From Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, contractor activities will concentrate on removal of penstocks, powerhouses and other elements of the project that will not affect river flows.
Beginning Monday (Oct. 17) contractors at the Elwha Dam will breach the existing cofferdam, and the river will flow through the new diversion channel.
Drawdown of the Lake Aldwell reservoir behind the Elwha Dam will also begin next week.
As work continues on the diversion channel, the “penstock intake structures” will be demolished. (The “penstocks” are the large metal pipes leading from the dam to the powerhouse — the “intake structures” connect the penstocks to the dam.)
At Glines Canyon (SEE PHOTO, above), notches have been hammered out and water is flowing through them — river flows have come up because of the recent rainfall, so water continues to flow through the open spillgates, too.
The Lake Mills reservoir level behind Glines Canyon is being dropped from approximately 572 feet to 560 feet. Once the 560-foot elevation is reached — the target date for this is today — it will be held steady for 14 days while the un-notched, high and dry sections of the dam are chiseled away.
See all the dams’ webcams at http://tinyurl.com/damwebcams .
