Steel dams were an experiment in dam construction that had a very short life in the United States. Steel dams work under the premise that steel construction offers substantial savings in material and labor costs compared to concrete or masonry construction. The Redridge dam was relatively cheap to build, costing only $150,000. The dam also took very little time to build, construction lasting only a year. A standard type dam on this river would have cost more to build and taken much longer to complete.
These costs and time advantages are due to how steel dams work. Unlike conventional dams, which rely on blocking the river with a thick concrete wall, steel dams use a thing piece of metal placed on an angle against the river. Much like a lean-to shack, the wall is held up by a series of beams and struts that sit on a thick concrete foundation. The water pushes against the steel wall ( trying to flatten it against the river bed ) while the struts hold it in place.
While in theory the dams work as well as standard dams ( the Redridge never failed during its almost 30 years of operation ) the long term success is not known. Of the three steel dams ever built, one failed a year after completion. The other two were in operation only 30 or so years, hardly a long enough time to determine their sustainability. The yearly maintenance required on these dams ( due to rust issues ) make long term operation costly and uncertain. Because of these and other issues, steel dams never took off in the US. This makes the Redridge Dam the largest of its type ever built in this country, or ever will be built.
The Wikipedia has a relatively good article on this dam, as well as Steel Dams in general. Check it out here: Redridge Dam
I have another steel dam that is not mentioned in any of the articles on “Steel Dams.” Look at the Edison Sault powerplant in the Soo. It is a steel dam, albeit inside the powerhouse. Its a 1/4 mile long and houses 80 horizontal turbines. It was built in the early 1900′s and is still in use today, making electricity for northern Michigan.
Edison Sault and Habes/Haer both have good website articles on this powerplant and its history and construction.
And thanks for this great website I might add! Stumbled upon it just this afternoon after Googleing “Michigan Dams.” Being a railroad employee and history buff of the same I also appreciate your insights into the railroads of the Keweenaw,
Dan from Rockford
Dan – Thanks for the great compliments. I was born in the Soo and know the powerplant well. I even remember getting a tour of it once when I was a kid, a very impressive building. Its too bad that the grand vision of the Soo as a great industrial powerhouse (which the building was envisioned for) never came to pass. If it did my family would never have had to leave.
Working in the railroad industry as you do must give you a lot of insight and knowledge about the things I feature from time to time here. I’m an amateur when it comes to railroads, but pick up things every time I go exploring. There is very little left of the railroads that once thrived here, but I hope to feature more as I stumble upon it. Please feel free to share some of your knowledge on this site, my readers would appreciate it!!
I will check in from time to time on the site…if you have any questions Email me at dtbmf[at]ix[dot]netcom[dot]com on any railroad topic. I’ll be glad to answer what I can.
Dan
Dan – thanks for help. I plan make an effort to create some more in-depth posts in the future and I’ll probably need your expertise from time to time. Most notable will be our return to the Q&TL RR sometime soon (once our second winter we’ve been getting lately decides to leave us, that is). I’ll be in touch. By the way, I edited your email so the spambots wouldn’t find you…
Found an interesting article about the rise and fall of the steel dam while wandering the grand internet. Here’s a link to the page. Hope someone enjoys it
http://www.sia-web.org/iajournal/IAVol15/Vol15no1pages1to20.pdf
That’s a good article about Redridge Dam. The old map showing the area around the dam is esp. good. We camped there last August during the same trip to find Albion Rock. We found that the stamp sand beaches are all closed off and apparently privately owned so we ended up camping by the dam. I explored around a little and can add that the old “waste-way” channel shown on the map is still there with concrete walls, etc. The iron RR bridge going over the “waste-way” is also mostly intact. But again, unless you’re standing right on that stuff you don’t know it’s there for all the trees. I hope they manage to save the dam. It’s a very cool relic with Milwaukee connections. In fact, Bill Harley (of Harley-Davidson) worked for Wis. Bridge & Iron Co. around 1908 for about a year.
Herb from Wis.
Guys…
That is a great article, so good in fact that I used it to write the three part Anatomay of a Dam series I wrote last year. (I cited it at the bottom of the article). It was the detailed schematics of the dam that I used to help draw up my drawings.
I also featured the old waste channel here, after finding it myself by accident really. The thing is real overgrown, and like Herb said you won’t even know your there until your right on top of it.