Work on the Riverside Dam in Cambridge will go ahead.

City Council passed a motion during a virtual meeting on September 8 to continue work to design work on the aging structure. The project was one of a number that council delayed or cancelled outright in May due to the financial strain put on the municipality by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision to resume design work on the dam means that construction won’t begin until 2022—a year later than originally scheduled—and at an overall cost that will likely be higher than initial estimates.

Council has set aside $6 million for the project, including $500,000 for design. The decision to delay the project, however, means that the construction work will be subject to new requirements mandated by the provincial government—ones that were made after the project’s final environmental study.

According to a report issued by city staff, the design of the new dam will be required to include the following elements:

• operating gates and valves to reduce flooding potential and help pass sediment,
• a fish ladder or alternative fish passage method,
• a health and safety apparatus for safe access for, and protection of, operations staff, and
• fencing, signage, and reiver barriers to prevent recreational use near the dam.

Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry suspects that this most recent delay to the project will cost the city hundreds of thousands of additional dollars—although the staff report indicates that the final price tag for the project won’t be known until much later in the design process.

"It's important that we do some detailed design in order to start adding in those extra conditions that the [Environment] Minister put in, so we can be shovel-ready in case there may be funding or a grant from one of our upper levels of government in future," McGarry told CBC News.

Council voted to restore the dam in 2018 after years of discussion about the structure’s condition. The dam itself is more than 100 years old and is in a state of disrepair. The Ontario Rivers Alliance has determined the dam is at a high risk of failure in the next two to ten years.

The project is expected to take two years to complete.