North Stonington — The repair of the dam at Hewitt Farm, the final project remaining after 2010 flooding damaged several town structures, is expected to be finished within the month.

The $455,000 project, which began last November, originally included merging two spillways to create a larger one covered by a 45-foot steel bridge. The existing walls were to be upgraded, too. The plan called for cement between the stones to make the walls "impervious" and cement-filled riprap at the base for additional stability.

Town officials recently decided to add a 15-by-10-foot wall on the Shunock River side of the dam nearest to state Route 2 to prevent erosion. That decision, First Selectman Nick Mullane said, shouldn't much affect the overall timeline or bottom line of the project.

Although the selectmen are still working with the contractor, Mattern Construction Inc., on the cost of change orders, asphalt for the bridge was scheduled to be laid Tuesday and Mullane expects the project to be completely finished "within a few weeks." And, though the wall could add more than $10,000 to the price tag, it would fit within the $480,000 budgeted for the project.

On Monday Hewitt Farm Committee Co-Chairman Nita Kincaid reminded members of the milestone the dam's completion represents.

"Since we've been a committee, 2011, the whole property has been divided in half," Kincaid said. "Now it's all brought back together again and I think that's a really positive thing. Now our efforts have to go into getting more people using it."

The issues leading up to the start of construction took nearly five years to resolve.

Before the March 2010 storm, Mullane said, the town already had looked into repairing the dam, located on the Hewitt Farm property that the town acquired in 2008. At the time, a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection inspection said simply that the dam needed repairs — a rating not as dire or costly as the "significant hazard" rating it received after the storm.

Once the town — down two bridges and with retaining wall weaknesses — realized in July 2010 that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was going to fund only temporary, not permanent repairs, for the dam, officials were forced to prioritize.

"We took and did priority items first," Mullane said. "For us to do all of them at the same time ... it wasn't possible."

In the years that followed the storm, the town focused first on replacing Old Town Bridge, which the flooding had rendered useless. The almost $1.9 million project — $1.47 million of which FEMA funded — didn't wrap up until about two and a half years after the storm, in part because of the bridge's location in a federal historic district.

Then, the town turned to the Village Green Bridge, where $245,000 in repairs — also funded 75 percent by FEMA — began in July 2013 and finished by October that year.

From there, the town put about $280,000 into retaining wall work near the new Town Hall Bridge and appropriated another $280,000 to attend to erosion in the Town Hall parking lot. Both of those projects weren't eligible for FEMA funding.

In the case of the Hewitt Farm dam project, almost $89,000 — or three-fourths of the cost of the steel bridge — will be reimbursed by FEMA, with the rest being the town's financial responsibility.

Members of the committee on Monday night were happy to hear of the project's near-completion, but questions remained.

Member Jack Brown asked whether it will be possible to refill Lewis Pond without draining Shunock River. Others asked if the wooden bridge on the north side of the new steel bridge will be able to handle enough weight for fire and other large trucks.

At the dam site last Tuesday, Mullane acknowledged no one had determined a weight load for the wooden bridge yet. "We'll do that," he said. "That is not a problem."

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle