Little Gloucester Dam Done

Camden County announced this week that work on the Little Gloucester dam has been completed.

It is anticipated the water level of Little Gloucester Lake, which is part of the Holly Run tributary of Big Timber Creek, will rise now that the dam work is finished.

The $900,000 project included the installation of a state-of-the-art aluminum dam structure and replacement of a section of corrugated metal drainage pipe located under the edge of Peter Cheeseman Road, near Camden County College's Blackwood campus.

“This dam had been slated for improvements due to its age, but the severe erosion caused by flooding during Hurricane Irene moved up the timetable," Freeholder Ian Leonard, liaison to the Camden County Department of Public Works, which oversaw the project, said in a press release. "We were able to consider this an emergency repair, and got it completed in less than seven months."

County officials noted that the project's impact on Camden County College students was minimal. Peter Cheeseman Road, which serves as one of the main thoroughfares to the college campus, was only closed due to dam work for one week in December.

Little Gloucester Lake dam is classified as a Class II dam by the state, meaning that, if it were to fail, it would cause significant property damage but pose no threat to human life.