The Design & Construction section provides engineering design and construction management services for various board-funded irrigation and dam safety projects as well as providing water-related engineering assistance for the Division’s sister agencies such as Wildlife, Parks, and Forestry, Fire and State Lands.
Recent Projects
Millsite Dam
Red Creek Dam
Silver Lake Flat Dam
West Desert Pumps
This section is also responsible for maintaining the West Desert pumps, which were operational from April 10, 1987, to June 30, 1989. The pumps helped protect homes, farms, I-80 and even the airport against flooding after Great Salt Lake rose approximately 12 vertical feet from 1982 to 1987. About 2.73 million acre-feet – or almost a trillion gallons of water – were pumped through the system at that time, which lowered lake levels about 18 inches. The total cost to build the project was $60 million.
The state currently spends about $10,000 per year to maintain the pumps so that in the event Mother Nature turns on the rain again, the pumps could be restarted. In the 1980s, it took just five years for the lake to rise 12 feet!
For more information, email water@utah.gov.