Work is almost half completed on two fish lift construction projects on the Susquehanna River that are part of the United States' largest shad restoration effort.

To restore American shad to the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, fish lifts are being built on the Holtwood and Safe Harbor hydroelectric dams on the river. The fish lifts will work like elevators to allow migrating shad to continue their upriver journey.

The lifts at Holtwood and Safe Harbor will start operation during the Spring 1997 shad migration.

The construction projects are part of the Susquehanna River Shad Restoration Program, a cooperative effort among four electric utility companies and various government agencies to provide passageways for American shad over the river's four hydroelectric dams.

The Safe Harbor dam is co-owned by Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and Pennsylvania Power & Light Co., which is the sole owner of the Holtwood dam. The two dams are located about eight miles apart on the river in Pennsylvania between the city of Lancaster and the Maryland-Pennsylvania border.

Much of the initial work to build the fish lifts has been construction of temporary roads, bridges and dams to access the site. In addition, nearly 10,000 pounds of dynamite has been used to remove about 10,000 cubic yards of bedrock to allow for construction of the lifts.

Cianbro Corp., a contractor specializing in dam and bridge construction work, is building the elevators at both locations.

"The fish lifts are the culmination of decades of work by the utilities and agencies to restore shad to the Susquehanna," said Bob Domermuth, a PP&L biologist who has worked on the shad restoration project.

The four hydroelectric dams on the river — beginning with PECO Energy Co.'s Conowingo dam in Maryland — have blocked fish migration for decades. Several years ago, PECO built a fish elevator on the Conowingo dam. So far, the elevator has been used to trap shad, which are then transported up river past the last dam and released into the river.

The trap and transport program, which is funded in part by PP&L and BG&E, has been successful. Nearly 62,000 shad — the largest amount since the program began — were trapped at Conowingo this spring.

After completion of the Holtwood and Safe Harbor fish lifts, shad and other migratory fish will be able to move up river on their own by being lifted over all three dams.

York Haven dam, located just south of Harrisburg and owned by Metropolitan Edison Co., is the final hydroelectric dam on the river. Passage over the York Haven dam is planned by the spring of 2000, opening more than 200 miles of the river to migratory fish.