Sharing the Shovels

n the misty morning of March 14th, the Friends welcomed stakeholders and supporters to Lock 24/ Fish Ladder in Easton to celebrate the long-awaited start of the major flood repair work on the Delaware Canal. State Representative Robert Freeman, Easton Mayor Salvatore Panto, Williams Township Supervisor Fred Mebus, Pennsylvania State Park officials, Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor staff, Delaware Canal State Park Advisory Committee members, a representative from the Canal Society of New Jersey, Popple Construction, BiState Construction, and members of the Friends gathered in front of Popple’s fully-extended long-arm track excavator. The crowd stretched from one end of the excavator to the other!

Celebrating the start of work in Easton. Left to right: Terry Pursell, Delaware Canal State Park Maintenance Supervisor; Rick Dalton, Park Manager; Tom Williams, FODC President; Cora Anderson, Tom’s granddaugher; Armand Cencetti, Popple Construction; and Greg DiNardo, Bi-State Construction.

All in attendance expressed their hopes for the Delaware Canal’s new beginning. Wishes were also made that the construction project flow smoothly and quickly. David Kemmerer, Assistant Director of the PA Bureau of State Parks, and Terry Purcell, Delaware Canal State Park Maintenance Manager, both quipped that they hoped that the work would be completed before their rapidly approaching retirement dates. 

The highlight of the celebration was a “sharing of shovels” during which Tom Williams, President of the Friends’ Board of Directors, and his three-year-old granddaughter, Cora Anderson, presented beribboned shovels to the representatives of the two construction companies. (Cora, dressed in a bright pink vest that perfectly matched the bow on her little shovel was more than ready to convey the hopes of future generations.) 

The “sharing of shovels” was meant to demonstrate that the Friends of the Delaware Canal and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which have been undertaking comparatively small flood repair projects are happy to have new help with the “big” job.

Since the first river flood of 2004 the Friends have been dealing with the consequences. Special clean-ups were waged after each of the inundations and significant, innovative repairs were completed. 

The rushing waters from the flood of September 2004 caused the canal bank to break and the towpath to severely erode in the vicinity of the David Library of the American Revolution in Washington Crossing. This damage was tackled by the Friends. A contractor was hired to line the canal prism with geosynthetic material and reestablish the towpath surface using a potentially more flood-resistant method called “stabilized turf.” This project allowed the PA Bureau of State Parks to test stabilized turf to determine its suitability for other sections of the Canal. The completion of the repair, which cost $102,000, allowed the southern 25 miles of the Delaware Canal, from New Hope to Bristol, to be rewatered.

The towpath in this same location was again damaged by the flood of April 2005. The erosion was less severe thanks to the positive performance of the geosynthetic liner and the stabilized turf. The second $47,000 repair was again funded by the Friends, and water was restored to the southern end of the Canal. 

Canal structures also take beatings during floods. The structural crossbars of the Thompson-Neely camelback bridge, located in the midst of the northern section of the Washington Crossing Historic Park, were dislodged by high water. With Department of Community and Economic Development grants secured by then State Senator Joe Conti and private contributions, first the Friends funded emergency stabilization and then later funded restoration of this bridge, one of only six authentic camelback bridges that remain along the Canal.

The Friends intend to keep on tackling flood-related projects as does the State Park. So along with the “big” job contractors, we’ll surely bring the Delaware Canal back to its old self and make it even better.