Last week’s column carried the story of the construction of the Conestogo Dam up to the end of the summer of 1957. This week’s installment continues the account as construc-tion wound down in the fall of that year.
C.A. Pitts and Company completed concrete work on the big project during the first week of October. By then the earth embankments were largely in place, thanks to the deployment of four scrapers, 15 dump trucks, five tractors, two graders, and three power shovels. The amount of earth moved was immense. As soon as the embankment was packed down, Reid Brothers, of Elmira, brought in truckloads of facing limestone from the Elora Quarry.
Work on the various road projects continued through the fall of 1957. Sir Lindsay Parkinson (Canada) Limited, the chief road contractor, had 22 men at work on the roads, plus another seven at a gravel crushing plant. H.G. Acres & Co., the project engineers, had a resident engineer and staff of seven still on the project.
The one big job remaining was fitting the big control gates into place. Those were massive steel assemblies, 15 by 22 feet, and weighing 22 tons each. Putting them in place was a delicate operation: they could easily damage the concrete work if they struck it during placement. Canadian Comstock workmen had the motors and controls ready for testing when the gates were in place in early November.
A series of tests followed, and they would continue over the winter. The operator allowed the water to rise to a level of 20 feet, and then the gates were opened, permitting a flow of 4,000 cubic feet per second.
The members of the Grand River Conservation Commission visited the site on Nov. 20. They were pleased to note that work was virtually complete. Later that day they learned that, despite two floods during construction and other problems that had held up completion for more than a year beyond the original schedule, the project would still come in within the $5,400,000 estimate.
The entire project, including land acquisition and road realignment and construction, would boost that total to nearly $8,000,000.
By late fall, the C.A. Pitts had moved most of its machinery and men to a project on the St. Lawrence Seaway, but there were plenty of small tasks to tidy up over the winter, and some that had to be deferred to spring.
GRCC members were relieved to learn at their meeting on Feb. 26, 1958 that the project was virtually complete. One outstanding matter was that Maryborough Township had not yet signed its agreement with the Commission, and was raising new issues with every meeting. Reeve Phil Rowland had opposed the dam from the beginning, and the position of his council had, if anything, hardened over the preceding four years.
Commission chairman Marcel Pequegnat blew his top: “We conceded many of the demands made by them for additional expenditures for road and bridge work … Negotiations have been most difficult and protracted … There appears to be no end to the demands.”
He recommended that the GRCC refuse to authorize any further work beyond what was already approved.
A major decision that day was to place the new dam in service to catch the spring runoff. When that news reached Maryborough its council became infuriated, as did MPP John Root. There were still some outstanding disputes over land acquisition, in addition to Maryborough’s lengthy list of demands over bridges and roads.
Four landowners had not agreed on a price, and those cases were destined for arbitration. The GRCC had decided to expand the acquisition of land around the lake. Their purchases now totalled almost 5,500 acres, costing them about $550,000.
The harsh condemnation from the Conservation Commission seems to have tempered the opposition of Maryborough council. They listened favorably to a delegation from Kitchener with plans for a Scout and Guide camp on a 42-acre property near the lake, purchased by the Gowdy Department Store, and pledged full cooperation.
The Commission decided that the official completion date would be Oct. 15, 1958. That allowed plenty of time for the final work on the dam, the settling of land issues, and the completion of the road work.
In March, Maryborough council was surprised to receive a cheque for $10,000 from the Grand River Conservation Commission, to compensate the township for the loss of roads and bridges around the new reservoir that were still on the list of outstanding issues. In addition, the Commission would bankroll the cost of some new road links and upgrades.
The cheque and promise soothed the council to a large extent. By then, they realized that there was nothing they could do to slow down the project, though Reeve Rowland was still upset at they way he felt the township had been misled and mistreated during the previous four years.
The thaw and runoff in the spring of 1958 was a very light one, and did not provide much of a test for the new dam. The new plan was to allow the water level to rise over the rest of the spring and summer of 1958.
Meanwhile, the road work continued. The last of the big contracts went to Cox Construction, of Guelph, for $115,000 of work to the Peel-Maryborough Town Line and the new link that would carry the route over the dam, and for $113,000 of paving work to that route and portions of other roads.
Next week: tidying up the loose ends, and dealing with cottage lots.