15 Neat Facts About The Construction Of The Peterborough Lift Lock
/1. The Peterborough Lift Lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway—aka Lock 21—was built between 1896 and 1904 in an era when the strength of people, horse and steam power was shaping the transportation systems of a growing nation.
Opening Day: July 9th, 1904
2. The Lift Lock was part of a larger construction project to canalize the Otonabee River—allowing the Kawartha Lakes to connect with Peterborough's commercial centre.
3. To establish the foundations for the Lift Lock at Armour Hill during construction, 76,000 cubic yards of sand, soil and gravel were excavated until the limestone bedrock was reached 40 feet down.
4. The presswells for the hydraulic rams were excavated a further 75 feet into the rock.
5. A foundation of granite blocks—some weighing a whopping ten tons—was lowered to the bottom to provide a footing for the rams.
6. When completed, over 26,000 cubic yards of Portland cement had been poured, without a single piece of *reinforcing steel.
7. The Lift Lock was at the time the largest structure ever built in the world with unreinforced Portland cement. To compress the Portland cement, Rogers employed hundreds of hand-held air driven compactors.
8. The installation of the steel chambers and hydraulic rams by Dominion Bridge Company of Montreal began in 1901 and was completed in 1904.
9. The original steelwork is still in use today, modified by zinc refinishing and welding on the boat chambers. (New aluminum gates were added during the mid-60s.)
10. Peterborough's Richard Birdsall Rogers (aka R.B. Rogers)—a civil and mechanical engineer from Peterborough who studied at McGill—oversaw the design and construction of the Lift Lock.
RB Rogers, pictured in the dark jacket near the centre, with his team of engineers.
11. As originally built, the Lift Lock could generate all the necessary compressed air and water pumping pressure to operate the gate pivot engine, gate water seals and control systems by opening a water penstock set in the lock's upper reach.
Lift Lock nearing completion, 1903
