多年来，GZA Geoenvironmental Inc.曾在美国各地的无数水坝上工作，但是很难击败历史意义的结合，再加上其最新项目之一的实际紧迫性，修复和围绕Springfield的Watershops Pond Dam。18luck官网

After three years of planning, GZA has kicked off a $3.6-million overhaul and modernization of the dam, an 1850s granite and masonry structure perched above the city’s South End neighborhood and named a “high hazard” dam by state officials.

The dam dates to 1857, when it was built to service the historic Springfield Armory, the prime manufacturing center for firearms for the U.S. from 1794 until it closed in 1968.

The dam and the 200-acre pond it created provided water power that helped armory workers churn out hundreds of thousands of Springfield rifles during the Civil War. Ringed by a historic building once used by the armory, the pond itself is now mainly used for recreational purposes.

Enter Norwood, Mass.-based GZA, which has worked on more than a thousand dams across the country.

In 2018, Springfield officials turned to GZA to assess potential repairs and potential uses for the dam and the pond.

Built originally to provide a steady flow of water to turn a water wheel, the dam was later used to generate hydroelectricity to power operations at the Springfield Armory.

GZA Geoenvironmental副总裁托马斯·詹金斯（Thomas Jenkins）说，GZA和城市最初探索了利用其后面池塘中的大坝和水力，以为当地学校的水电产生水力发电，该学校将用作紧急撤离中心。。

但是，这一想法被证明是不可行的，随着新的电厂面临长达一年的途径的潜在允许，并且随着电力的量，它的产生不足以使其值得。

The city and GZA dropped that plan and began to focus solely on repairing the dam and improving access to it. (Power for the emergency shelter at the school will be provided instead by rooftop solar panels.)

“We do need to harden the dam and bring it up to current dam safety standards,” Jenkins says. “We shifted gears.”

There were big issues on both fronts, though.

在联邦政府关闭枪支制造厂之后，斯普林菲尔德市在1970年代接管了历史悠久的军械库，但是，随着向私人所有者出售某些物业的原因，它最终失去了直接进入该地点的机会。

As a result, the city’s access to the control house was limited to a five-ft-wide walkway between a building on one side and the pond on the other.

此外，在1950年代安装了当前的波峰门时，对大坝进行了最后一次重大升级。大坝反过来占据了水流池塘，该池塘栖息在城市的南端上方。

斯普林菲尔德（Springfield）资本资产建设部主任彼得·加维（Peter Garvey）说：“大坝持有200英亩的水。”上帝禁止如果大坝失败了，那将消灭附近。”

A centerpiece of the project involves replacing the 65-year-old crest gate, built in the 1950s in the wake of a devastating hurricane and while “state-of-the-art” then, is now “woefully inadequate,” Jenkins says.

佳洁士门口的钢组件已经“严重teriorated due to corrosion and were structurally unreliable,” Jenkins says. In addition, “the semi-automatic hydraulic controls had not been functional for many years and parts and service were not available,” he adds.

The crest gate, currently being fabricated by a firm in Steel-Fab Inc. of Fitchburg under a separate contract with the city, will be trucked to the dam in October, when Gardner Construction & Industrial Services Inc. of Chicopee, Mass., the general contractor, will install the new, 50,000-pound gate, which will come in five sections of 10,000 pounds each.

Bill Fountain, president and owner of Gardner, says one of the biggest challenges of the job is the extremely limited space to work in.

Fountain将Watershops Pond Dam项目排在其公司最具挑战性的前五名中，理由是涉及的“后勤问题”。

With no space to maneuver on the site, Gardner will bring in sections of the gate two at a time, he says.

“It’s a challenging site—it’s very tight,” Fountain says. “There is not a lot of room to even have our guys to park.”

“There is no staging area here,” Fountain says.

新的3英尺高，105英尺长的皮瓣将使城市官员能够更好地为重大风暴的潜在洪水危害做好准备，并能够提前降低池塘的水平。

In order to solve the access issue, GZA plans call for the construction of a 250-ft-long berm across the pond, connecting the driveway to the gate control house. It is designed to be big enough to drive a light truck across.

正在安装一个新的液压系统，以及Gate Control House中的所有新的和升级的电气服务。

总承包商加德纳（Gardner）还将做一些工作，并重新点击历史悠久的大坝的砌体。

去年秋天排水的池塘计划于明年春季补充，该项目定于明年6月完成。

“It’s great work to me,” Jenkins says, noting GZA has done work on dozens of dams across Massachusetts. “It combines all the wonderful things about engineering, historic infrastructure, preserving our past and making sure we have resilient infrastructure that is capable of dealing with climate change.”