Walk Over New Croton Dam Will Be Closed July 19

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NY — The New York City Department of Environmental Protection will close the public walkway atop New Croton Dam for several hours July 19, while experts replace monitoring instruments on the dam.

It may be worth going to Croton Gorge Park to watch experts rappel down the face of the masonry dam to replace monitoring instruments.

The work is expected to take several hours, and the brief closure is necessary to establish a safe work zone. During that time, DEP will shut down both entrances to the walkway atop New Croton Dam. An adjacent entrance to the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail might also be affected by the temporary closure.

In the case of inclement weather the temporary closure will be postponed to July 20.

DEP will post an update to its watershed Facebook page when the work is finished and the recreation path is reopened.

The New Croton Dam was begun in 1893 and completed in 1907. It stands over 200 feet high. The Croton Reservoir has a capacity of about 34 billion gallons of water with a watershed covering 177 square miles.

It is part of New York City’s water supply, which more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.6 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the city, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. It is managed by the DEP.