Unstable dam in Taunton replaced

TAUNTON -- Working deep into the night, construction crews built a new stone structure to replace the sagging Whittenton Pond Dam yesterday, ending the threat that the 173-year-old wooden dam would fail and unleash a catastrophic flood on the downtown.

In scarcely more than 24 hours, crews dumped more than 3 million pounds of stone across the Mill River just downstream from the existing dam, which had become so unstable by last Monday that Taunton officials closed schools and evacuated 3 square miles of downtown as a precaution. Yesterday, city officials said a state of alert would remain in effect through today, but they felt confident enough in their new wall of stone to immediately dismantle the Whittenton dam.

''The crisis is over," said deputy fire chief Ron Nastri, as an excavator behind him dropped another scoop of stone onto the new dam across the Mill River. ''Everything is going to be back to normal in Taunton shortly. Nobody was hurt. Everybody was safe. . . . It's just a happy ending for everybody."

Mayor Robert Nunes said he was astonished at how quickly the new dam went up once state dam inspectors concluded on Friday that the old one was too rotted to be repaired. He said dam specialists from the state and the Army Corps of Engineers, working with G. Lopes Construction of Taunton, sketched out plans for a simple dam using stone from a quarry less than a mile away. Working under floodlights until 12:30 a.m. yesterday, workers had constructed the new dam by lunchtime, and the old dam was ready for demolition.

''This is so simple. They just threw some rocks in there," said Nunes, who was repeatedly congratulated by citizens as he toured the dam site yesterday.

The new dam allows the Mill River to pass underneath through three open culverts, but if the river gets too high it will flow over the top of the dam like a waterfall. Asked if the dam would be sufficient to avoid a repeat of last week, Nunes said, ''the engineers assure me it will."

The next big issue, he said, will be paying for the dam replacement and helping businesses and residents who suffered losses during the three-day evacuation. Nunes said he had no idea what those costs would be, but the Bush administration has already declared Bristol County a disaster area, which would provide federal funding to help with the city's direct costs.

Normally, the 100-foot-wide Whittenton Pond Dam would have been an unlikely focus of attention. But 10 consecutive days of rain backed up so much water against the dam that operators could not open underwater gates that would relieve pressure by allowing more water to pass through. Massachusetts' governor and US senators visited the site, as did reporters from as far away as Australia.

The city called for voluntary evacuation of more than 2,000 residents on Monday as the privately owned dam buckled slightly against the water. On Wednesday, Nastri, the city's lead emergency official at the site, said he was certain the dam was going to fail when a section in the middle shifted down by several inches. But, with heavy-duty pumps diverting 30,000 gallons per minute of the water before it could reach the dam, the breach never came and most evacuees had returned by Thursday.

John and Anne Haggerty, who did not evacuate, said they were greatly relieved after sleeping two nights last week in their clothes in case they had to flee a sudden flood. ''They've done a wonderful job," said Anne Haggerty.

Others were more skeptical.

''I just think it was a little blown out of proportion," said Steve Sousa of Taunton, as he stood on a bridge and the tea-colored Mill River rushed beneath him. ''This dam has been here for years and years and it's been through so many storms, but I guess you have to err on the side of caution."

It was an unceremonious end for the dam, which had never failed since it was built in 1832. By late yesterday afternoon, the remains of the dam had been loaded into debris bins for removal.

Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com.