Crews begin demolishing dam in Bridgewater for conservation efforts, officials say

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Crews have begun demolishing the historic High Street dam in Bridgewater in ongoing conservation efforts by the state, officials said.

The dam has stood over the Town River for more than 100 years and now faces numerous structural problems, officials said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 12.5-foot-high, 80-foot-wide dam on High Street has been deemed “a significant potential hazard that obstructs natural river flows and has contributed to local flooding,” so it is being removed, officials said.

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Crews demolish Bridgewater's High Street dam (Mass. Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Ecological Restoration)

The High Street dam is the first barrier to migratory fish coming up the Taunton River from Narragansett Bay, officials said. The demolition is part of an ongoing effort by the state to remove dams that are preventing fish migration and failing to prevent flooding.

Just upstream, the High Street Bridge, built in 1790 and thought to be one of the oldest bridges still standing in Massachusetts, will be replaced with a new 55-foot, clear-span bridge that will also better accommodate peak river flows and prevent flooding of the town’s roadway and adjacent private property, officials said.

The new bridge is designed to withstand a 500-year storm and climate change projections through 2070. The river restoration will open 10 miles of river to alewife, blueback herring, American eel, sea lamprey, and American shad fish species, officials said. Alewife will also benefit from 354 acres of spawning and rearing habitat in Lake Nippenicket.

The project is the latest in a series of barrier removals on tributaries to the 40-mile, National Wild and Scenic Taunton River, the longest, undammed, coastal river in New England, officials said.

On the nearby Mill River in Taunton, removal of the Whittenton Mill Pond, Hopewell Mills, and West Britannia dams and construction of a fishway at Lake Sabbatia reconnected 30 miles and 560 acres of spawning and rearing habitats with the larger Taunton River and Narragansett Bay system, officials said. As a result, populations of migratory fish have increased substantially.

The dam project is funded by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Dam and Seawall Repair or Removal Fund and Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program; the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game’s Divisions of Ecological Restoration and Marine Fisheries; the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; Town of Bridgewater; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association; The Nature Conservancy; the Taunton River Stewardship Council; and the private dam owner.

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