Missouri River Water Management News

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Cherry Creek Dam Crest Road to close for dam safety instrumentation and maintenance project

Published June 3, 2015
A round of storms Sept. 14, 2013, impacted the Cherry Creek basin causing pool elevations at Cherry Creek reservoir to enter the flood control pool. Cherry Creek peaked at a pool elevation of 5553.4 ft on Sept. 25, more than 12 feet below the record pool of 5565.8 feet in 1973. Major transportation routes and a large population, which makes up the Denver metropolitan area are located downstream from Cherry Creek Dam.

A round of storms Sept. 14, 2013, impacted the Cherry Creek basin causing pool elevations at Cherry Creek reservoir to enter the flood control pool. Cherry Creek peaked at a pool elevation of 5553.4 ft on Sept. 25, more than 12 feet below the record pool of 5565.8 feet in 1973. Major transportation routes and a large population, which makes up the Denver metropolitan area are located downstream from Cherry Creek Dam.

Cherry Creek Dam and Reservoir Project near Aurora, Colo.

Cherry Creek Dam and Reservoir Project near Aurora, Colo.

LITTLETON, CO - The Crest Road at Cherry Creek Dam will be closed from June 22 through July 12 to accommodate work that will be taking place adjacent to the crest road. The bike path at the downstream toe of the dam will remain open through construction. 

The Drill Crew Unit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, will be performing drilling and dam safety instrumentation work at Cherry Creek Dam in Arapahoe County, Colorado during June and July. The work will be performed on the crest road and the downstream, north, side of Cherry Creek Dam.

Crews will install two new groundwater observation wells, known as piezometers and remove 14 existing piezometers that are more than 60 years old from service and are no longer functional or needed. Crews will also be performing maintenance work on relief wells along the toe of the dam.

Operations Project Manager Joe Maxwell said, “This work is a continuation of several dam safety related projects that began with the cleaning, repairing and inspecting the relief well and toe drain system in 2010; installing 20 new piezometers in 2010 and 2011; and installing 14 new relief wells and a new collection system in 2012 and 2015.”

Drilling activity is scheduled to begin by Monday, June 22, and work is scheduled to be complete by the end of July. 

Cherry Creek Reservoir’s storage capacity is 134,470 acre feet that was constructed in 1950 to diminish the effects of flooding in the Denver area. The rolled earth-fill dam is owned and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District.

Cherry Creek State Park and its amenities as well as its 8-miles of shoreline will remain open to the public during the project work.

For more information, please contact Joe Maxwell or Scott Franklin at 303-979-4120.


Contact
Eileen Williamson
402-995-2487
eileen.l.williamson@usace.army.mil
or
Joe Maxwell
303-979-4120

Release no. 20150603-001