Barr assisted the Floyd County Conservation Board with its efforts to remove a dam on the Shell Rock River in the city of Rockford. Constructed in 1872, the 7-foot-high dam no longer served a useful purpose and was deteriorating. Significant leakage was occurring below the dam, and it presented a hazard to swimmers and boaters. In 2010, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources declared the dam to be in a state of failure and recommended that it be either repaired or removed. The county, in consultation with the Iowa DNR and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), elected to completely remove the dam. The USFWS provided most of the funding for removal.
Barr assisted the DNR, which provided a grant for a portion of the project, with data collection efforts, and performed a baseline assessment of a historic, restored millhouse located on the river's east side. The spillway was structurally connected to the millhouse foundation and great care needed to be exercised to separate the two without damaging the millhouse.
Barr developed construction plans and specifications for the dam's removal, which included a grading plan for the west side of the channel to restore floodplain connectivity and bank vegetation. We also developed a monitoring plan for the historic millhouse, which included installing crack gauges and vibration monitoring equipment to monitor the millhouse foundation during construction, and performing pre- and post-construction surveys of the structure. Barr worked with a subconsultant to assist with the architectural documentation of the dam removal—a required permitting step due to the dam's historic nature.