New dam construction staring this spring just north of Fort Collins

[Wayne]

The Glade Reservoir project will begin construction just north of Ted's Place on US-287 north of Fort Collins. The dam will be built over the next 3 years and 287 will have to be relocated to the east side of the foothills.

It's going to be interesting to see the dam built, not very often do you get a chance to witness construction at this scale. The dam will be built where I put the red line. From what I understand, the dam will be about 300' high and 1,600' long. At capacity, storage will be 170,000 acre/feet, which is larger than the Horsetooth Reservoir just west of Fort Collins. The dam took about 30 years to get approval.

I'll post pictures as it's built.

FAQs | NISP | Northern Water

www.northernwater.org

 

[ctechbob]

Wow, I thought that big dam projects were pretty much dead these days. Guess not.

They have their recreation plan online, good for RV Folk:

https://www.larimer.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2020/1st_sub._no._1a_attachment_a_recreation_concept_master_plan.pdf

 

[ctechbob]

Here's a pic of the area to be flooded:

Right on the cover of the report is a picture of the area.

Wayback Machine

 

[MSCH]

they using that dam to make electricity.?

 

[Azjeff]

If you go 3D in Google Earth you can see why they picked this spot. Interesting geology.

 

[Wayne]

they using that dam to make electricity.?

Nope, only for water storage. The end users are both agricultural and residential. The total water storage from the two new reservoirs being built is around 230,000 acre/feet and Horsetooth is 156,000 acre/feet. There are some smaller reservoirs around, but these three reservoirs will be the bulk of the storage for this area. 386,000 acre/feet is a lot of water! This area should have plenty for the foreseeable future.

To put 386,000 acre/feet into perspective, Dillon reservoir, which is Denver's largest reservoir, is 250,000 acre/feet and if you've ever driven around Dillon reservoir, that's a large and deep body of water.