ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Asheville city officials plan to remove the Lake Craig Dam on the Swannanoa River as part of Helene recovery work, pairing dam removal with replacement of the damaged Gashes Creek crossing under the Azalea Parks and Infrastructure Recovery Project.
The dam was built in 1924 as a combined hydroelectric structure and roadway crossing. Hydroelectric use ended in 1952, and the structure was later modified into a pass-through weir that supported the bridge. Tropical Storm Helene badly damaged both the dam and crossing when it struck Western North Carolina on Sept. 27, 2024.
Azalea Parks and Infrastructure Project manager Dustin Clemens said city modeling found no downstream flood benefit to keeping the dam and that removal could reduce flooding on nearby soccer fields. Officials are working with FEMA on structural checks of what remains and expect public-assistance funding to cover removal, with hazard-mitigation funds as a backup if that path fails.
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission conservation biologist Luke Etchison said the dam was not holding much sediment even before Helene and holds little now that it is damaged. Removing it would reopen upstream river access for fish and other species and should improve long-term water quality on the Swannanoa River, he said.
City leaders frame the project as restoring public riverfront space while cutting flood risk in parks that Helene wrecked. Mayor Esther E. Manheimer administration and staff at Asheville City Hall are advancing the recovery package that ties park rebuilds to the dam-and-bridge work.
Residents along the Swannanoa corridor have watched Helene debris and damaged infrastructure linger, and dam removal is one of the larger engineering steps still ahead in that recovery lane.
