Construction on dam seemed at times to be jinxed

Last week’s column took the story of the building of the Conestogo Dam to the fall of 1956. Contractor C.A. Pitts had expected the dam to be com­plete by then, but political squa­bbling and an extremely wet summer had delayed work.

At times, the big construc­tion job seemed to be jinxed. A worker crashed and was killed one morning while driving to work. In November 1956, there was another fatality, when a gravel truck hit the car driven by a land buyer for the Grand River Conservation Commis­sion.

Through the late fall and early winter, crews were busy clearing trees and brush from the area that would soon be flood­ed. It was a large job: sev­eral woodlots had to be re­mov­ed.

Reeve Phil Rowland called Mary­borough council into ses­sion again on Dec. 17, furious over the removal of a couple of bridges and dozens of roadside trees without notification of the township.  Council passed una­ni­mously another resolution condemning the GRCC.

The GRCC members toured the area early in January 1957, following a lunch in Fergus. First stop was the old Elora quarry, by then owned by the Commission, and idle for a quar­ter of a century. The GRCC had reopened the opera­tion as a source of limestone rip-rap rock to be used as a facing on the earth portions of the dam. From the quarry the group moved on to the dam.

C.A. Pitts had continued work as long as possible into the fall of 1956, and had man­aged to get almost all the con­crete work completed before shutting down for the winter. As well, most of the heavy earth moving was completed thanks to favourable late fall con­ditions.

In mid January, C.A. Pitts crews dismantled the largest piece of equipment, a 105-ton shovel, and loaded the compon­ents onto flatcars at Linwood’s Canadian Pacific station. The destination was another Pitts contract, on the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Frustration was evident in the attitudes of GRCC mem­bers when they met on Jan. 18, 1957.

Arguing over roads had occupied 18 months, and the en­tire 1956 construction season had been lost for building and re­routing roads. They denounc­ed the “excessive and costly demands of the townships,” and were annoyed at the slow­ness of provincial officials in making decisions on matters referred to them.

The project was headed to exceed the $5.4-million esti­mate, but the federal govern­ment advised that it would provide no additional funding.

Emboldened by a legal opi­nion that stated the GRCC had the right to close and relocate roads without municipal per­mis­sion, members proceeded with the letting of tenders for the major road work that had been advertised late in 1956.

R.A. Blyth construction of­fer­ed the lowest bid, at $458,000. The GRCC was de­ter­mined that work would pro­ceed, with or without agree­ments with Maryborough and Wellington County council.

A month later the GRCC members discussed a request from the provincial govern­ment to increase the size of the reservoir, based on data col­lected during Hurricane Hazel in October 1954. Talk ended when the engineers advised that it was impossible to change the design of the dam at such an advanced stage without a prohibitive cost overrun.

There were a couple of piec­es of good news. GRCC engineer Peter Rogers reported that the tree clearing operations during the winter came in at $108,000, which was $7,000 under estimate. And the land buyers reported that agree­ments had been reached on all but three parcels.

On March 4, the GRCC ap­pointed a committee consisting of chairman Marcel Pequegnat, E.F. Roberts of Brantford, and mayor L.F. Dreyer of Kitch­ener, with a mandate to bring a final resolution to the outstand­ing road issues.

Two days later, Marybor­ough Reeve Rowland gathered together his supporters at a meeting in Guelph. They de­cided to take their issues an com­plaints to Highways Minis­ter James Allan. He would be the arbitrator. Pequegnat had already been in touch with him.

The result was an agree­ment worked out in early June, recommending the closure of sev­eral sections of road, the con­struction of three new roads, and raising and improve­ments to several other stret­ch­es. It seemed like the final resolution.

The agreement provided for a paved road surrounding the new lake and Conestoga Dam, and roads to serve all remain­ing farms. The plan facilitated good local connections and allowed through traffic to by­pass the area. Local MPPs Fred Edwards and John Root assist­ed with lobbying at Queen’s Park. The province and Conser­vation Commission would pay for all the costs of the road work.

The road agreement result­ed in changes to the contract awarded to R. A. Blyth. Due to the death of a supervisor, little work had been done. At the re­quest of Blyth, the GRCC approved the subletting of the work to Sir Lindsay Parkinson (Canada) Limited.

Sad days for oldtimers came on March 2 and 3, when the Roy­al Canadian Engineers us­ed Hollen and the surrounding area for a war simulation. That was the end for most of the buildings in the Hollen area.

With heavy work on course to be largely completed during the summer and fall of 1957, the GRCC dealt with a number of smaller items. Canadian Comstock submitted the lowest of seven bids for the electrical equipment at the dam, at $27,600.

Ronald Osgathorpe was hired as operator at the dam. He would live in the for­m­er residence of Myrtle Mitch­ell, which would also house the office for the dam. Recreation and reforestation loomed ever larger in the picture. During the summer, the GRCC decided to purchase an additional 450 acres in the vicinity of the new lake.

After lengthy negotiations with Peel Township, Reid Bros., of Elmira, who had the contract to haul the limestone from the Elora quarry, agreed to be re­sponsible for any damage to township roads resulting from the heavily loaded trucks.

The construction site conti­nued to lure tourists to the new dam, resulting in heavy week­end traffic. That pleased Russ Lyons, of the Drayton Restaur­ant, who expanded his kitchen to cope with overflow crowds. Some local businessmen ex­pected a permanent boost to the local economy through tour­ism – an outcome that few had anticipated at the beginning of construction.

Project manager Art Cantle, in a report in July, expected the dam to be completed by the end of September. The latest frus­trations had been quicksand and an artesian well. All the problems had put completion a year later than had been plan­ned originally. Nevertheless, earlier fears of major cost over­runs did not materialize. By sharp­ening their pencils, engi­neers were able to bring the project in at the most recent estimate of $5.4-million.

Employment on the site dropped below 100 during the summer of 1957. It had peaked at more than 150 a year earlier. Altogether, the C.A. Pitts crews had poured 95,000 cubic yards of concrete and had moved 1,200,000 cubic yards of earth.

Though Highways minister James Allan had mediated a roads agreement, Maryborough council was far from happy with it. They discussed it at length in August, and planned further discussions later in the fall.

The most recent estimate of a September completion prov­ed to be optimistic. The major job yet to do was the installa­tion of the gates. Above the dam there was still plenty to do, including final agreements for some of the land. But a full completion of the project was at last on the horizon.

Next week: Final work, and the dam goes into service.