Robert Street Dam Removal - Part 1

The removal of the Robert Street Dam, one of the most significant obstructions to migratory fish passage on the main stem of the Raritan River, was successfully completed in August 2012. This project constitutes the most significant dam removal thus far in the Raritan River watershed and has advanced several of the river restoration goals set forth by the Sustainable Raritan River Initiative. This work is the second of three planned dam removals that will ultimately re-open nine miles of historically significant spawning grounds for American shad and other migratory fish on the Raritan River and the lower 1.5 miles of the Millstone River (in addition to numerous tributaries). This fish passage restoration initiative is a ground-breaking example of a cooperative public-private partnership that was forged between Carl Alderson of NOAA, Dave Bean of NJDEP, and John Jengo of MWH on behalf of the Kinder Morgan, Inc., who is funding the project.

[@donaldatherton319]

I really like that the photographer zooming in so close I can see every speck of rust on a piece of steel, and not worry about understanding the overall job.

[@PacoOtis]

Well done and thanks for having the real sounds instead of horrible intrusive music, which you mostly avoided!

[@JohnWJengo]

Jake, you’re correct that there are some species, such as carp, that can leap over obstructions like this but our restoration efforts are focused on restoring native alosines, such as river herring (alewife and blueback herring) and American shad. You probably saw a gizzard shad make it past a dam, but perhaps not American shad, which is the desired species we are hoping to bring back into the Raritan ultimately in the tens of thousands. Thanks for your thoughtful questions and observations.

[@tek9tim]

I can watch equipment work all day. Especially ripping out dams. Just looks so fun!

[@tsgtammo2]

Like the kayak and the WOO HOO !!

[@StereoSpace]

They have such amazing demolition tools these days. That hydraulic jackhammer and that claw & bucket are really impressive. Even the size of the concrete blocks they were lifting astounds me. Very cool and informative video. Thanks.

[@JohnWJengo]

Thank you.

[@dylanruppert4547]

StereoSpace well you gotta remember it's all thanks to the invention of hydralics lol

[@JohnWJengo]

Dylan Ruppert Quite right! I think we would still be there today with a hammer and chisel trying to remove this dam if not for the wonders of hydraulics!

[@mathiask7959]

Some of those operators were having a blast pulling the damn apary

[@sentradynamics8889]

2:03 looks like straight up kayaking on the grass lmao

[@JohnWJengo]

Studies will be performed regarding the most feasible fish passage at the other main stem Raritan River dams. In summary, when these dams are removed, the best fishing spots do change, but the fishing will be better because more fish will be coming upriver to spawn, their offspring will thrive in a healthier river, and with those fish come other predatory species such as strippers (there were quite a few reports post-dam removal of these fish being caught in and around Duke Island Park). Thanks.

[@buttfingerblaster]

10 years later how has the river benefited from the removal?

[@julianjohnmeadows36]

what an amazing job you guys did, quite complex looking taking it all apart..interesting to see also..brave you all are also as that flow looks insane once it got going...is nice though to see people maintaining their local environments..beautiful river

[@JohnWJengo]

Thank you for your supportive comments, I appreciate it. Thanks.

[@tooclaws]

Love the wahoo at the end, Rofl know that feeling. ;)

[@WTFtheGreatOutdoors]

i love watching this stuff!

[@CosmicStargoat]

I know. I used to be addicted to black tar heroin and porn. Now, after watching these things, I am only addicted to KZbin demolition videos. Quid Pro Quo.

[@user-pn2xb6ys4j]

ต ห

[@Mojsinjski]

Odlican posao!!,, sve pohvale za realizaciju ovog projekta.

[@gerardjohnson2106]

I have 1000s of hours in the cab of excavators. Demolitions are my favorite projects. I'd "pay" to take a shift on dam busting like that.

[@oldnickus]

hahahahaa 8:10 he cannot wait till the work is done XD

[@NerLawler]

I love the fish jumping in the first section!

[@davidmatthews1710]

Great music selection.......... I love this song

[@rooftopvoter3015]

7:17, girlfriend taking my wallet.

[@mothman197979]

Damn there were a lot of dams at one spot.

[@JohnWJengo]

Indeed. Of the next few dam removals that I'm researching now, all three were incorporated the failed structure of a previous dam. I guess it was smart from their perspective to use the previous dam as additional ballast since all gravity dams depend on sheer weight to stay in place. Thanks for your comment.

[@andersian1985]

they really need to make a it show on this stuff i find it fascinating

[@JohnWJengo]

Actually some production companies, including two from the UK, are developing documentaries and TV shows on dam removals. My dams are on the small side of what they want to depict so I've directed them to other companies who are doing larger dam removals in Oregon and Washington. It will be interesting to see what shows they come up with. Thanks.

[@glynpereira3256]

It's like watching an apprentice dentist on his first day!

[@woefultourist8232]

Nicely done, buddy.

[@randymaylowski2485]

nice video of that :) and nice looking machines :)

[@CRErnst92]

Nicely done videos

[@boatyMcBoaterton]

Very satisfying to watch...

[@irenedavo3768]

Good job!

[@MidnightISO]

Love the guy at the end!! ^_^

[@oracaododia-gu6ym]

Que belo ,mim sinto feliz em ver a natureza e uma terapia

[@johnjensen2112]

Well Constructed

[@tardismole]

Gotta love the guy at the end, there. :D

[@samratdhamale]

these machines has enormous power..

[@jmr1068204]

Press 8:08 for pure randomness...

[@JohnWJengo]

Yes, I wanted to be the first person in nearly 100 years to kayak through a free-flowing river at this location; it was a great ride! Thanks.

[@ahabtheplant]

+JohnWJengo If conditions permit, do you do that every time? I would in a heartbeat!

[@guntherultraboltnovacrunch5248]

I'm literally wiping the tears from my eyes. First from JMR's post, then from your comment. GOOD STUFF.

[@madhatter8512]

ive seen that jackhammer before, those are my favorite videos ;) lmao

[@normn11]

that must have been a good fish free zone for a while after, with all the noise

[@Therrito]

Excellent choice of music :-)

[@JohnWJengo]

Thanks, I was hoping the tunes would accentuate the video.

[@Therrito]

JohnWJengo I only wish you added more of that music rather than a short clip

[@JohnWJengo]

My original version used the full lengths of songs, but to be granted copyright permission to publish the videos on KZbin, one has to use abbreviated segments of songs to protect the copyright holders from someone downloading the whole song. Thanks for your interest!

[@pboyer76]

hahaha! loved the photobomber at the end!!

[@TheeAbstractHero]

I got here from watching videos on custom computer water cooling reservoirs. I don't care because this is cool :D I remember when I was a little kid I liked to make dams and stuff in my sandbox for fun.

[@useless52196]

How did this dam block the passage of the fish? I have personally watched trout, carp, shad, suckers, and even catfish jump up this dam with no problem in the summer. I have been fishing there for about 6 years and had a blast, now the water is too fast and shallow to fish. Taking the dam out went from one extreme to another. But on the other hand this will help with the algae which was very annoying when fishing. Is there any updates about taking the Headgates or Nevius out?

[@commentor3485]

Amazing what a backhoe can do. That had to be scary being the guys who were destroying the dam being in the water.

[@commentor3485]

@@terasestHammasratas damn it

[@QuintTheSharker]

Random music from The Who. Awesome 🤣

[@dewosinggih8237]

Pemandangan yang luar biasa 👍

[@illgill2893]

When I heard the music I started dancing

[@sergioleyva4837]

Damn we are such a nuisance to this earth

[@ez0526]

This earth created us.

[@burnttoaster6313]

EZ05 the earth didn’t just create us out of thin air

[@idlehands1111111111]

Very unexpected ending but gave me a good laugh!

[@belowmes]

I would love to see the headgates in Duke Island Park come down, portage there is nothing short of a nightmare. Jake, trust me, learn the river and unlock its secrets and you won't need to fish by a dam, and btw, American shad don't jump. Take out all the dams, even the ones on the Millstone river. American water is using old technology to colect drinking water from the Raritan, the dam and fish ladder could also be removed.

[@machineman7806]

Good tune

[@oscarmendez590]

great project. I had no idea that you could extract piles with a vibratory pile driver, using it as an extractor

[@JohnWJengo]

Actually, I didn't either when I started planning this project. Knowledgeable engineers advised me that I needed a sheet pile driver and I literally stated "I don't want to put them in, I want to take them out." That's when they told there was a way to reverse the process, which as you can see, worked very well. Thanks for your comment.

[@ninja2kernow]

I love that this is happening around the world .Great job people.

[@paytonheidtke6037]

when they first show the water at the in the beginning a fish jumps up to get over the dam, nice size fish, closest to camera

[@bubba8876]

Jengo unchained.

[@MegaBbqbbq]

Is it actually a dam or a weir?

[@JohnWJengo]

It could be technically referred to as a weir, but I have found that term to be somewhat unfamiliar to people, so the more commonly known term "dam" is used. Thanks for your comment.

[@stevenm5508]

Dose water get in the cab of the machines?

[@hirofuji]

Good.

[@Mmariovega]

I miss working in construction

[@MemesnShet]

3:35 is it me or the video slowed down there for a second

[@MF11283]

For the migratory fish couldnt they cut a few notches into it so the fish can pass? I get the boating safety part tho

[@ryguyadventures5830]

Wow a lot of concrete

[@fieldaj2011]

needs more music. talking heads - "take me to the river"

[@chrisnungester4193]

Sphagnum moss is a sign of phosphate dumping . Which means there is coal fired power plant in the area . Ammonium Nitrate dumping is also killing the fish . And detering there spawning . Thus... once you remove the dam there will still be pollution problems .

[@AquaDamInc]

And no isolation of the concrete dust from the greater body of the river. What happened to following the Clean Water Act?

[@JohnWJengo]

Thanks for your question. In our permit applications with NJDEP, that was not considered a risk to the ecology of the river, which is why the demolition was scheduled for mid-summer, after the fish migration season and before the young-of-the-year would be swimming downstream. I was required; however, and I was glad to do it, to remove all the concrete from the river so as not adversely affect the pH and chemistry of the surface water. Thanks.

[@nicoferguson1215]

I would love to see a similar ram removed; it is near the Battle Creek Railyard in Michigan, on the Battle Creek river i do believe

[@davidwicken9126]

It's a waterfall not a dam.

[@mobrule1234]

Why did they need all those Dam dams?

[@JohnWJengo]

Good question. Back then, not a lot of thought went into the negative effects of dams. Throughout the late 19th century and through most of the 20th century, most people felt as President Franklin Roosevelt did when he dedicated the Boulder [now Hoover] Dam on September 30, 1935 that dams were necessary to capture "the energy that otherwise would be wasted." We now recognize that a river in its natural state provides more economic and ecologic benefit than impounding it. Thanks.

[@Renville80]

JohnWJengo Just remember that wind turbines don’t generate any electricity on calm days and solar installations don’t generate anything on cloudy days or in the dark. We shouldn’t be so cavalier about getting rid of dams. I could maybe see why this one had to go because of the inherent danger of low head dams, but still...

[@irenedavo3768]

Watching September 2018

[@LooneyMoonFilms]

Damn...

[@63256325N]

Got a kick out of the kayaker.

[@ningaginga5795]

Nice

[@Mr.Saephan503]

Two dam strong there lol

[@Scodel]

We’ve got weights in fish!!!!

[@user-jw9ew8ow5w]

Так это все было затеяно для того, чтобы тот "крендель" на лодке проплыл ? )))))))

[@RDC_Autosports]

that’s where i was born ✌🏻 1982

[@ujification3504]

why not build water turnines in the boil ? . Like an old water weel deep in the boil

[@JohnWJengo]

The minimal gain in any hydropower generation was not offset by the economic gain of a free-flowing river; the owner of the dam recognized that the removal of the dam would generate more income from recreational use and they no longer have to carry millions of dollars of insurance to cover the drownings that occurred at this dam in the past. I'm hoping that we may be just a few years away from efficient in-river turbines that could generate hydropower without all the negative consequences from dams. Thanks for your question.

[@grancito2]

Bring in Barns Wallis.

[@billyshearer1]

This is Branchton.

[@ronaldwells1805]

They did that in our area to now we do not have no water Upstream low water

[@Nderak]

8:10 LOL

[@elijahhampton9008]

So you telling me people waste they time and energy to build that dam and they destroy it 🤣

[@irenedavo3768]

Back to Nature

[@georgehofgren6123]

Back to Stupid is more like it. This guy and the rest like him should have his knees broken for what he is doing to N.American critical infrastructure, most of which was constructed literally in the name of Conservation ~

[@MTips18]

I'll make the trip to fish it. Out of respect.

[@JohnWJengo]

That would be excellent, I hope you catch something worth keeping!

[@natesmodelreveiwsetc.9626]

Gmc 2015 theme song

[@okboomer6201]

That was kind of cool, but blasting would have been better.

[@thebobloblawshow8832]

Any salmon can’t jump that speed bump.

[@Mrbfgray]

WTH? A 3 ft drop is an impediment to salmon??? I've watched thousands jump 20 ft.!

[@MrStabby19812]

Yeah we have a hydro dam up north with salmon ladders built into it you can watch them leap up the various bits with ease

[@JohnWJengo]

We don't have salmon in this river (if we did, you are right, they could easily leap this structure). We have American shad and river herring, who cannot jump or otherwise get over these dams, hence the impetus to remove them. Thanks for your question.

[@charliefoxtrotthe3rd335]

The only thing I don't like is handling material more than one time, or as few times as possible. Once that bucket full of rock is lifted out of the dam the first time, it should have gone straight into a waiting truck. I would wager that each chunk of busted concrete got handled three or four times, and that is very inefficient. Yes, I understand that sometimes it is unavoidable, but it should be the exception, not the rule.

[@JohnWJengo]

+Täking Thë High Roäd Good point, but necessary in this case, at least in the beginning of the project. We are required to breach the dam over a certain width in a certain amount of time and so by eliminating the conveyance of concrete, we were able to comply with that requirement. I have on other dam removals (see the Calco Dam Removal for instance) been able to direct load into an articulated truck, thus limiting the number of times that the concrete was handled. Thanks for your comment.

[@charliefoxtrotthe3rd335]

JohnWJengo Yeah, I suppose that would make it a little hard to do. My boss is a real stickler on that subject, but in this case you had to move the pile several times. Great job by all!

[@steva30]

Dynamite would b faster

[@nhragold1922]

Was that a God dam uuuhuh

[@SuperDk1978]

Cant believe people get paid to do this, I would do it for free

[@jefferyschirm4103]

Just remember not one dime for flood problems later on and you know it will or for need of water in severe droughts.

[@JohnWJengo]

This dam was not a flood control structure, and actually has alleviated flooding upstream because we lowered the baseline pool level of the former impoundment by 5 feet. Thanks for your comment.

[@FeeSon]

8:09 ??

[@thatrandomchannel8589]

Dynamite 🧨 would of worked better.

[@johnnymoran180]

Get rid of that killing machine

[@Gabe1976.]

8:10 😂🤣😂🤣

[@prozac1127]

They should break all dams on earth.

[@jmr1068204]

7:31 What are we looking at? Looks very hot.

[@JohnWJengo]

The individual sheet piles connect to each other in a tongue and groove system similar to the way a hardwood floor is interconnected. After decades of oxidation that cemented this connection, the pulling apart of one sheet from another caused so much friction that the metal would super-heat and glow red and that is what I captured at 7:31 in the video. Thanks for your question.

[@maccymcdonald3198]

This is why I agree with the removal of humans encroaching on wildlife habitat. We spread like a plague killing everything in our path.. no more.. ANIMALS have their place on this planet too.

[@kolyamelnychenko1915]

буоб не погано поставить там міні ГЕС

[@JohnWJengo]

Installing a mini hydropower plant was not considered a beneficial exchange relative to restoring migratory fish passage and restoring the river's water quality. One of the land owners opted for solar panels, which was a much less impactful option for energy. Thanks.

[@riparianlife97701]

4:24 Done! Move on to the next dam. We should not be spending so much time and money fully restoring individual dams when there are 75000 of them to get rid of. Breech thousands, then go back and restore the sites.

[@JohnWJengo]

What you are suggesting is not workable either technically or administratively. Fish migration studies have shown that anadromous fish cannot overcome breaching notch entrance velocities so notching every dam will not increase or improve fish passage. And on a practical basis, it takes 3-5 years to gain access to these dams through private properties, obtain all the proper (and required permits from federal and state agencies) and wait for the right river conditions (cfs) to set up. Very often, we have but one window of opportunity to execute a dam removal and we cannot leave until the river is completely open and the dam completely removed per the permit requirements that gave us permission to perform the work. Setting permitting requirements aside, to return to finish the job later essentially doubles the price of the project (a second set of permits, remobilizing equipment and personnel, installing another ramp, and etc.), which no one would agree to. Thanks for your comment

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

That's not a dam

[@JohnWJengo]

I mentioned under another reply that it could be technically referred to as a weir, but I have found that term to be somewhat unfamiliar to people, so the more commonly known term "dam" is used. Thanks for your comment.

[@duncanpitfield1212]

It's not a dam it's a weir.

[@JohnWJengo]

Indeed, they are all weirs on this river. I refer to them as "dams" because they are officially named that in the Bureau of Dam Safety inventory files, but moreover because weir is a term that is relatively unfamiliar to the public at large, whereas a "dam" is something that everyone can recognize or visualize. Thanks for your comment.

[@biancahand7266]

Please remove all these death machines.