Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have temporarily closed the stilling basin at Tuttle Creek Lake for a pair of construction projects that will take place over the next few months.
The first, a rock overlay project, will require work on the upstream side of the upper portion of the dam. Operations Manager Brian McNulty says much of the project has been completed.
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Work on the west side of the channel will require much of the upper rock from the roadway, requiring the shutdown of the west entrance to to the park through Outlet Park.
According to a release from the Corps, the areas being repaired consist almost entirely of rock placed 60 to 70 years ago during the reservoir’s original construction. It has endured decades of freeze and thaw cycles and erosion during the 2019 flood event.
The second construction project affecting the stilling basin is a gate liner repair project. Two large steel liner plates immediately below the flood control gates in the tower will be replaced. During a routine inspection in the fall of 2020, officials discovered one of the liner plates on the tower’s west side had failed and a portion of the steel plate was found in the stilling basin below the dam.
McNulty says the first half of work was done prior to peak flood season.
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The first project is expected to take three to four months, while the second project is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Officials say none of the construction work has any connection or correlation to the proposed water injection dredging project planned in 2025.
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