Two old iron sluice gate gears now stand on the river-right bank of the Royal River, near the pump station at Bridge Street. In the week of October 5, crews from Linkel Environmental Construction mounted them there with the Yarmouth Arts Alliance. The dam they once served was breached on August 20. About a week and a half later, Royal River Park's renovated pathways reopened after a summer behind orange fencing.
Those two events are steps in the same process. The park reopened next to a river whose dam was breached in August and whose banks are still being rebuilt. The park has work scheduled for spring 2027, the dam site's permanent fence may not go in until spring, and the next dam upstream depends on funding that has not arrived. The riverfront you walk this November is an early version of what will be there later.
A park that came back a month late
The original plan closed the park for the summer and reopened it in September. The Town's own Royal River Park Improvements log explains why it slipped. The parking lot closed the week of May 18, the park shut the week of May 25, and construction began the week of June 1. From July 8 into September, the log says, "Frustrations happened, park opening timeline fluctuated, then product was delayed."
On September 15 the main pieces were finished: pathways, garden beds, parking lots, light fixtures and a new sign. Then the contractor came back on October 14 to repair the pathway so it would meet accessibility standards. The park closed through Friday, October 16, while Central Maine Power installed upgraded service for the lights. On Monday, October 19, the Town reported the pathways "completely open again," and the next day's update read simply, "The Pathway is open!"
Some of what the renovation added is underground. Crews installed culverts, stormwater drainage and conduit for the new lighting, and they took out the old cistern pedestrian bridge. Here is what you can see now and what is still to come:
| In the park now | Scheduled for spring 2027 or hoped for later |
|---|---|
| Rerouted and rebuilt pathways, repaired in October to meet accessibility standards | Kiosks |
| New lights, on from dusk until no later than 11 p.m. once CMP completes final inspections | More wetland plantings |
| Garden beds, parking lots and a new park sign | More trees |
| A drinking fountain for people and pets, donated by the Yarmouth Lions Club | Hoped for: fresh paint on the parks garage and the picnic shelter timbers |
| Bike racks and six trees and shrubs planted with volunteer help |
The Town is also asking for help with the spring list. Community Services wants volunteers for the plantings and has opened a Yarmouth Memorial Tree Program for trees placed in the park. Much of the park's mature planting will go in after the reopening.
At Bridge Street, the dam came down first
While the park was closed, the bigger change was happening at Bridge Street. On July 22, the Town of Yarmouth and the conservation group American Rivers began the project to remove the Bridge Street Dam, its penstock and its concrete fishway, starting with site preparation. The Town's press release says the work is paid for with grants and private donations, not local property taxes. It lists a $1 million grant from the Maine Natural Resources Conservation Program, plus money from the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, The Nature Conservancy and other foundations and donors.
From there, the Town's weekly construction log and the Royal River Alliance's timeline record the work step by step:
- July 22: Linkel prepares the site, starts taking apart the penstock and builds a temporary diversion to carry the river around the work area.
- August 20: On day 22 of the project, the Royal River Alliance reports that the dam "was breached, and water began flowing through the opening."
- August 24–28: Crews remove concrete and built-up sediment, restart removal of the Denil fishway, and take out the catwalk and the penstock gate control.
- September 14–18: The last concrete on the river-right ledge is removed by hand.
- September 21–25: The penstock pipe is cut back flush with the bridge, and crews start taking down the granite wall behind it near Sparhawk Mill.
- September 29–October 1: Coir matting and reseeding begin along the river-right bank, and the riprap wall on river left is finished by October 1.
The Town's July release says all the sediment that had built up behind the dam is to be removed from the site, not washed downstream. That explains why so many log entries pair "concrete and sediment." Taking the dam apart and hauling out what it had held back were done together.
What the riverbank work is building now
With the dam concrete and penstock cleared away, the bank needs new support, and that is what crews were working on in mid-October. During the week of October 12, Linkel poured more footers and stacked precast concrete blocks into a new retaining wall. The existing granite wall is being tied into the new one. By Thursday, October 15, three tiers of blocks were in place on the downstream section.
At that point the Town estimated the wall was about two weeks from done, followed by about a week of regrading, seeding and site cleanup. If that estimate held, the finishing work would land around early November. The fence is on a slower track. The Town says the permanent replacement fence may wait until spring because of subcontractor availability, and the construction fencing will stay until it goes in. The July release also said the pedestrian path from Bridge Street to Royal River Park would close for the length of the project, with signs pointing to other routes. Expect detours on that connection until the Town announces it has reopened.
So the reopened park meets an unfinished riverbank. The new seed on the Bridge Street banks went in this fall, and the park's wetland plantings come next spring. The plantings in the park and along the restored bank are both very new this season.
"For over 350 years, dams have shaped the Royal River and disconnected upstream habitat from Casco Bay." — Royal River Alliance
The next dam is the one without a date
Bridge Street was the first of the dam removals. The Town's release says more fundraising is needed for the next phases: removing the East Elm Street Dam and its fishway, adaptive management work at Middle Falls, and related projects. In July the Town was still waiting to hear back on a grant application it sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in February 2025.
A May 2026 monitoring framework from the project partners sets a target for East Elm Street. It ties that removal to NOAA funding, aims for the end of the 2027 low-water season, and says the timeline may shift. The same framework explains how the partners plan to measure changes in the river. The Royal River Alliance will run environmental DNA and fish-community surveys in fresh water. The Gulf of Maine Research Institute will run eDNA and seine surveys in the estuary. Fish cameras and continuous water-quality monitoring are planned around Bridge Street. Middle Falls will get flow and channel-shape monitoring before and after removal. These are planned methods. Once results come in, they are meant to show how fish use the river after removal.
East Elm Street matters for the same reason as the park's spring list. The riverfront is being rebuilt in stages, each with its own schedule and funding. The park's next stage has a season, spring 2027. The river's next stage has a target, but the money for it has not been secured.
Walking it this November
For now, the Royal River Park loop is open on its new, accessible pathways. The drinking fountain is there for people and dogs, and the bike racks are installed. Once CMP completes its inspections, the lights stay on from dusk until no later than 11 p.m. As darkness comes earlier this month, that should make an after-work walk practical.
On Bridge Street, you can help record the change. A Chronolog photo stand on the Bridge Street bridge lets anyone contribute a photo to a crowd-sourced time-lapse of the restoration. The YAR101 time-lapse already shows the site from May through October 2026, built from 141 photos. The Town asks photographers to watch for traffic, since Bridge Street is a narrow two-lane road with very little shoulder. Expect the construction fencing at the dam site to still be up, possibly until spring. The historic sluice gate gears are mounted on the river-right side near the pump station.
Weekly progress notes are on the Town's Royal River Restoration Project page. The Royal River Alliance shares updates at royalriveralliance.org and is the place to learn how to support the next phases.
A Yarmouth home near the Royal River will look different from one spring to the next as these projects finish. At Mary Libby Living Real Estate, we follow those changes block by block. If you're thinking about how the riverfront's next few seasons might shape your plans, schedule a free consultation and we'll go through it together.
