Lake Pueblo Dam - Pueblo, Colorado - Water Dams on Waymarking.com

The Lake Pueblo Dam is an Earthfill dam with massive concrete buttresses providing the overflow section. It is located on the Arkansas River 6 miles west of Pueblo Colorado and was constructed in 1970 - 1975. The lake has a surface area of 5,664 acres and the dam sits 191 feet above streambead. The top width is 30 feet and the maximum base width is 1,040 feet. It was constructed with 540,000 cubic yards of concrete annd 12,000,000 cubic yards of embankment and required the excavation of 2,800,000 cubic yards for completion. the spill way is an uncontrolled overflow type crest spillway with a converging training wall and concrete flip bucket.

Lake Pueblo and the Pueblo Dam were constructed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, in which waters are diverted from the western slope of the Continental Divide and transferred down the Arkansas River to the east. The Fryingpan-Arkansas Project was approved by the U.S. Congress in 1962, and President John F. Kennedy came to Pueblo to proclaim the start of construction the same year.

Lake Pueblo is the principal water storage reservoir in the Project. Its waters are used for irrigation, drinking and recreation, and it provides flood control to the Pueblo community. Lake Pueblo State Park was founded in 1975. It includes 7000 acres of land and 4500 acres of water rights leased by the state from the Bureau of Reclamation. The park is among Colorado's most popular destinations for water sports. Situated at the western edge of the High Plains, the location provides scenic contrasts between the open plains eastward and rugged mountains nearby. The site is dominated by Pueblo Dam--10,500 feet long and 200 feet high. A fish hatchery is located below the dam, and a wildlife-management area is set aside at the western (upstream) end of the park.

The concrete dam and massive-head buttress-type spillway structure is the principal control structure for the reservoir. The concrete section is 1,750 feet wide with a maximum structural height of 250 feet. The spillway has a crest width of 550 feet and was designed for a maximum spill discharge of 191,500 cubic feet per second. The river outlet works is controlled by two 4-foot-square high-pressure gates and regulate normal water releases into the river. Additional releases may be made to the river through three separate spillway outlet works. Two 6-by-6.5-foot high-pressure gates control each outlet work.

The south inlet works was designed and constructed to deliver water for municipal and industrial use is made from the south outlet works, a multilevel intake structure capable of taking water from the reservoir at different levels, thus providing a degree of control over water temperature and quality. Water deliveries from the fish hatchery outlet works have similar controls. Included in the outlet works are the outlet channel, a concrete river plug in the river channel, and the Bessemer Ditch headwork's.

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Waterway where the dam is located: Arkansas River Main use of the Water Dam: Water Supply (Drinkable) Material used in the structure: Concrete Height of Dam: 250 feet Date built: 01/01/1975 Fishing Allowed: yes Motor Sports Allowed: yes

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/08/2015 Outspoken1 visited it 08/05/2012 Team Taskmaster visited it 10/21/2009 PersonsMD visited it

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