Reconstruction of Hinckley Lake Dam completed after 2 years: What they did

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]It's it's been 2 years since locals have been able to enjoy Hinckley Lake.

[00:00:04]>> Yeah, the Metro Parks Center went to multi-year rehabilitation of the nearly 100-year-old dam. That is where we find our David Greenberg live this morning with what's in store for this year. Good morning, David.

[00:00:18]>> Yeah, Dave Denita, good morning to you guys as well. We are here at Hinckley Lake. The sun is just coming up over my left shoulder here outside. We're in the boat house right now and it's beautiful out there. So, we're going to show you that here throughout the morning, but we're inside right now. We're talking with Jim, the director of construction on this project. Jim, first off, thanks for being with us this morning.

[00:00:36]>> out this morning.

[00:00:37]>> So, just the excitement level now that Hinckley Lake after a couple years is back open to the public once again.

[00:00:43]What's it feel like now that we were we're through it all?

[00:00:46]>> Yeah, so it was a long haul. We started in September of 2023.

[00:00:50]We drained the lake down. Then we proceeded to replace the dam. It was about a 100-year-old dam that was there before. So, we replaced the dam, filled it back up, made sure that they held water, you know, made sure that the dam worked, drained it back down again, and then took about 45,000 cubic yards of silt that had built up over the years out of there, and then filled it back up again and here we are, fully ready for activities out there.

[00:01:13]>> All right, so I got to ask this question. How do you go about emptying a lake this size and then refilling it again?

[00:01:20]>> Yeah, so it's it's it's it's pretty simple. There's a valve on a pipe and you open the valve. It's like draining a bathtub. So, you open the valve. Now, it takes a minute because it's a 75-acre lake. There's quite a bit of water in there, but we we open the valve, let it drain down slowly, and then did the work we had to do, closed the valve, and then Mother Nature took over and filled it back in.

[00:01:39]>> Yeah, all right. So, a lot easier than, you know, in my head I'm thinking you got truckloads of people bringing water out with buckets and volunteers and all that stuff. It's that's not the case.

[00:01:48]>> It's not the case, no.

[00:01:49]>> Okay. All right. So, this is back open now to the public again. We've got kayaks. We've got boats that you can rent. Can you talk about some of the fun things that are going to be going on?

[00:01:57]>> Yeah, so this weekend we're actually going to put lifeguards at the spillway again. It'll be a guarded swim hole for people to use which they've used over the years. So that's happening this weekend. The trails around the lake are now reopened. We're going to continue to do other trail work on those trails, but they will be usable throughout the summer. And then we have other hiking opportunities in Hinckley as well, whether it be Warden's Ledges or Whips Ledges. We're rebuilding the Redwing Cabin around the corner. So even though the lake is done, there's still a lot going on out here in Hinckley Reservation.

[00:02:26]>> Any cool finds when you guys drained the lake at the bottom that was sitting there?

[00:02:30]>> To my knowledge, no.

[00:02:32]Bottles, cans, you know, stuff like that, but but nothing spectacular.

[00:02:35]>> Nothing spectacular. All right, I was hoping that they would find, you know, maybe the Loch Ness Monster. We were just saying Jimmy Hoffa earlier. We didn't find him down there either. So bad news on that department, but good news, Hinckley Lake back open to the public once again after a couple years, guys.

[00:02:50]>> Interesting where you went with that there Greenberg, but I will admit this though. I agree with you. It seems like it was more simpler than what we would think for draining this.

[00:03:00]>> Yeah, absolutely. I thought, you know, they had people with like sand castles at the beach with their buckets just walking up and down bringing water out, but I feel like that would have taken a little more than two years. So >> That's true.

[00:03:11]>> not.

[00:03:11]>> Yeah. All right, David Greenberg live for us this morning, buddy. Thank you.

[00:03:15]We'll see you later on.