Springfield officials outline major rehabilitation of Upper Van Horn Dam; work will require reservoir drawdown

SPRINGFIELD — City staff and consultants on Jan. 28 presented plans to rehabilitate the Upper Van Horn Dam on Armoury Street, saying the work responds to an order from the Massachusetts Office of Dam Safety and will require drawing down the upper reservoir and multiple regulatory approvals before construction can begin.

"We received a dam and seawall grant to get into the design and permitting and construction documents to renovate the Upper Van Horn Dam," said Laura Walsh, project manager for the Parks Department, introducing the project to the Springfield Conservation Commission that evening. Walsh said the work so far has focused on design, agency outreach and the permitting process under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA).

City and consultant presenters told the commission the embankment — the steep, tree-covered slope you pass on Armoury Street — has multiple stability and drainage failures, including animal burrows and erosion gullies, and "does not meet dam safety requirements for seepage or stability," according to the presentation. Consultants said the dam was originally built in the 1850s and last had major rehabilitation in the 1950s.

The consultants from GZA and city staff outlined a conceptual rehabilitation that would remove trees and woody vegetation from the embankment, regrade slopes from about 1 vertical to 2 horizontal toward a flatter slope (the team described moving toward roughly 3 on 1), add mass and stability berms, repair or replace failing drainage and pipe connections, replace the degraded spillway chute, install new toe drains and riprap where needed, and provide new…