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Dam removal project awarded to Bay City company

Ed Mcdonald
/
https://flic.kr/p/6TCP3R

The Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that it has awarded a contract for the removal of the Sabin Dam near Traverse City.

The three-point eight million dollar contract went to Job Site Services, a Bay City company.

The project is part of a larger effort to restore the Boardman River - two dams have already been removed from the river.

Carl Platz is with the Army Corps of Engineers.

“Project is going to increase upstream migration of fish and aquatic organisms and essentially return the river back to the way it was originally intended.”

Platz said contractors will work to ensure that aquatic species downriver of the dam are not harmed.

“Basically there’s quite a bit of sediment built up behind these dams for the last 100 years and there are specific plans and procedures to manage that sediment, collect it, and place it back up on the land.”

Platz said the Sabin Dam project will begin this summer and is expected to be finished before the end of the year.

The project is funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.