The Hillsborough River Dam holds back Tampa’s primary drinking water supply, making the reliable operation of its crest gates a matter of daily importance to the city. By the late 1990s, the fifteen existing crest gates, each 25 feet long and 5’3″ high, had fallen into poor structural condition and could no longer be operated safely. Each one had to be lifted individually with a portable trolley hoist, a slow and increasingly precarious arrangement. Retained by the City of Tampa in 1999, the team set out to rehabilitate the gates and restore dependable control of the dam.
A river bypass added since the original dam construction had created excess hydraulic capacity, which shaped the approach. Nine of the gate bays were revised to fixed concrete crests at 5’3″ high, while six received new crest gates and fixed hoists. Temporary floating bulkheads were installed, and gate bays were modified to accept maintenance bulkheads for future servicing. A new control house was constructed to house two remote-controlled gates, replacing the manual trolley-hoist operation with a safer, more responsive system.
The result gave Tampa a rehabilitated dam it could operate with confidence, protecting the water supply that the city depends on every day.