Little Falls Dam – Mead & Hunt

At a time when it’s much more common to see dams removed than repaired, Mead & Hunt’s commission to rebuild the Little Falls Dam in St. Croix County was a slightly unusual one.

It came only after officials at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources studied the likely benefits of knocking down the dam and concluded the reservoir formed by the 104-year-old structure was too important to the surrounding Willow River State Park to lose. Mead & Hunt stepped in with plans meant to ensure the rebuilt dam would not only last decades more into the future but also remedy the deficiencies of the old structure.

One big flaw in the old dam was its lack of an adequate spillway, a cause of serious safety concerns. Fearing flooding, the DNR had the dam intentionally breached in 2015.

Mead & Hunt responded to these concerns by giving the new, 26-foot-high Little Falls Dam an overflow spillway, a crest-gate spillway, an intake tower and non-overflow structures. The rebuilt structure is now strong enough, and equipped with enough safety features, to manage a 1,000-year flood.

But safety was only one priority. An almost as important goal was to protect the environment. Mead & Hunt strove to avoid harm to the natural setting by providing a cold-water draw for fish and taking steps to prevent park personnel from often having to operate the dam’s gates and to control downstream releases of sediment.

With the completion of the dam, Mead & Hunt and its partners have ensured that visitors to Willow State River Park will have a lake for swimming, canoeing, kayaking and fishing for decades to come.