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DIR Return to: Macedon & Palmyra Canal Community Discussion
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#Post#: 1731--------------------------------------------------
Macedon's Embankment dam.
DIR By: Michael Caswell
Date: August 25, 2021, 3:22 am
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It's not readily noticeable that Macedon actually has an
embankment dam. One Macedonian brought it to my attention, so I
decided to take a trip out there with my dogs and have a stroll
along the canal and see for myself.
The dam starts at Canandaigua Road on the north side of the
canal and runs eastwards to Route 31 and Lock # 30.
[attachimg=1]
As you can see from this map, there is an area north of the dam
(marked in red) which has Canandaigua Road embankment, running
to the railroad embankment, running to 31F embankment, a totally
enclosed area.
If you look carefully, you'll see two streams running parallel
to the canal, but there is no water source, other than the canal
itself. As there is running water visible at the lock end, the
only source of water must be from the canal itself, so I'd be
inclined to call these toe drains. That means the canal is
leaking - somewhere! How much is the mystery, and where
exactly? I'll bet no one knows. How could they? There is so much
vegetation.
If there was a breach, the entire area would flood, I'd guess to
a depth of ten feet or more.
[attachimg=2]
I first noticed there was a lot of brush growing on the inboard
side of this dam, amongst the riprap rock. I was rather
surprised about this because our Perinton dam inboard slope is
mowed regularly and has hardly any vegetation on it.
[attachimg=3]
Note the overhanging tree, growing into the embankment. Any
self respecting dam engineer will tell you this is a NO NO! And
with only a 16 feet wide dam, the roots could easily reach the
outboard slope and cause 'piping'.
The trail is just dust and I imagined a mud bath in wet weather.
There was hardly any shade along this section, mainly because
most of the trees are on the north side of the canal. Yes, we
were two mad dogs and an Englishman out in the midday sun! :-)
As for the actual embankment itself, it's in pretty poor shape.
[attachimg=4]
Note the strip of grass on the right. About a foot further in,
the slope of the embankment suddenly drops off. I'd calculate
the angle of this slope is about 80 degrees (it should be 30-45
degrees), certainly nothing anyone could walk down. It starts to
level out at about 15 feet down, and I'd suggest the corn field
below must be 20 feet below the crest of this dam. They must
have been short of dirt when they built this.
You can see the lower lying cornfield here.
[attachimg=5]
The brush mostly vines, and honeysuckle, (Controlled invasive by
NYDEC) is impenetrable, the trees are not as old as those in
Perinton, and I'd guess the biggest ones I saw were only about
12" diameter.
I didn't notice any buildings within my embankment triangle, but
I think there are, according to Google maps. Hardly the massive
loss of life and property like Perinton, but one life lost to
drowning is one too many.
There's no doubt, Macedon has a dam, not a very good one, in
poor shape, badly constructed, terribly maintained and
impossible to inspect properly. But it's there and it needs a
fixin'!
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