Where We Stand, and the Road to Refill
Three years in, it's worth stepping back and taking stock — of what's done, what's left, and when the pond comes back.
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Steel Shell Up, Generator Delivered
Promised you a happier post. Here it is — the site looks more like a power plant today than it has at any point in this project.
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Storm Surprise: The May 19th Flood
On May 19th, a large storm parked itself over the watershed and refilled Waterloom Pond in a matter of hours.
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Spring Restart: Inside the Penstock
The ice is out, the pond is receding, and the 2026 season is underway — starting from the inside.
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Winter Wins: Closing the Head Gate for the Season
On December 20th, the coffer dam breached for the second time — and this time, we read the writing on the wall.
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The River Fights Back: Coffer Dam Breach
On November 1st, the river collected on October's warning shot. The coffer dam suffered its first major breach, and the entire worksite flooded.
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Designing the New Generator House
While the crews fight the good fight at the headgate, the drafting side of the project hit a milestone of its own: the new generator house design is complete enough to show off.
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Headgate Surgery and New Footings
September and early October went to the oldest machinery on the site: the headgate.
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Building the Coffer Dam (and a Siphon)
To rebuild the headgate and intake, we need to work below the waterline — without the water. That's what August was for.
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Crane Day
Some project days are just another day. July 28th was not one of those.
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Drawdown No. 2: The Big Overhaul Begins
Here we go again — and this time it's the main event.
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Foundations for the New Generator House
With the old building down, the new generator house is rising from the ground up — literally.
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Taking Down the Old Building
The old powerhouse building is coming down — carefully, piece by piece, and with more respect than a demolition usually gets.
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The New Turbine Arrives
Yesterday a truck backed down our access road carrying the future of this plant: the new turbine and its draft tube are on the property.
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A New Abutment: Concrete Work as the Pond Returns
Six weeks of hard, wet, muddy work — and the leak is beaten.
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Drawdown No. 1: Addressing the Abutment Leak
The pond is going down.
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Trenching, Conduit, and Groundwork
Not every phase of a hydro restoration is dramatic. This one was mostly digging.
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Power to the Site: New Electrical Service and Safety First
A construction site needs two things before real work starts: power and safety. March delivered both.
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Documenting What We Bought: Inside the Old Powerhouse
Before you can restore anything, you have to know exactly what you have. We've spent the summer doing a top-to-bottom photographic survey of the entire site — nearly four hundred photos of the dam, the pond, the penstock…
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A New Chapter for Waterloom Pond Dam
Waterloom Pond Dam in New Ipswich, New Hampshire has been holding back the Souhegan's waters for well over a century. The dam and its small hydroelectric plant — federally licensed as an exempt project since 1985 — power…
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