SAN ANTONIO — A broken dam along San Antonio’s River Walk will get much-needed repairs.
Today—city council approved a task order that allows the San Antonio River Authority to come on board to fix the dam along Nueva Street---one of the gates broke in January.
When walking past the dam, you can hear sounds of the San Antonio River flowing through downtown.
“This is one of our more critical dams, so we have to make sure it’s operational,” Kerry Averyt, design and construction engineering manager for the San Antonio River Authority said.
Currently, the dam on Nueva Street has only one functional gate—after the east gate had a mechanical failure back in January.
“It also became kind of wedged in there, but the city crews were able to get the gate all the way up and so they’re keeping it all the way up right now,” Kerry Averyt said.
The gate could not lower all the way—and it’s remained stuck since.
“This allows the operational control of the River Walk and allows us to control the water levels to make it more aesthetically pleasing,” Averyt said.
He’s pleased that the city council allowed the River Authority to come on board for a $4.4 million project to replace the east gate first—then eventually the west gate. According to city council documents, the funding is available from the stormwater regional facilities fund and is a part of the city’s capital improvement program from the fiscal year 2022 to 2027.
Averyt says there are six dams on the River Walk.
Construction could start in the fall of next year—with some brief interruptions to pedestrians.
“Whenever we actually bring the gates in and out we’ll have to stage a crane probably up on the street. There might be some temporary trail closures along the River Walk, so what we’ll do is keep the public informed,” Averyt said.
His goal is to keep the River Walk dams in check for decades to come. He estimates designs for the project could be completed by fall of next year, construction could take nine months to a year to replace the gates.