Huntington Falls Redevelopment

Weybridge, Vermont | Private Client

Located on the Otter Creek, the Huntington Falls Hydroelectric Project is a historic facility that required redevelopment. The D&K team assessed the two non-operational turbines and related appurtenances, the trash rack, and raker upgrades to the Unit 3 turbine following FERC relicensing. Additional D&K services included design and coordination to upgrade all three turbines, resulting in an annual output increase from 2,600 MWh to 3,000 MWh. 

Our multidisciplinary design team provided an assessment, design, and construction phase services supporting the use of three camelback turbines. We also designed canoe portage wayfinding and an expanded public river access area. 

Project Elements

• Compressed schedule
• Headworks reconfiguration
• Expand capacity, reuse existing historic powerhouse
• Replacement of a deep masonry shear wall with a steel moment frame to provide additional interior space for the modern electrical generation and switchgear equipment
• Protection of active osprey nest in the center of the site
• Avoidance of on-site Native American burial grounds

Awards

ACEC-VT Grand Award for Engineering Excellence

Sustainable Elements

• Increase bypass flows for fish passage while increasing capacity by reconfiguring the headworks and increasing operating efficiencies.
• The design maintained the original use of the 110-year-old powerhouse while refurbishing the structure to sustain and support modern electrical generation equipment.