Kirt Lindley watches the pumps, installed in 1935, control the water gates at Hyrum Dam.
HYRUM – The Bureau of Reclamation closed the dam road in Hyrum to conduct tests by bore sampling of the dam and spillway from October 14 through November 1.
Kent Kofford, the deputy area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation in Provo Area Office Upper Colorado River Region, said earlier the testing was tied to a 2015 and 2016 study done to investigate the safety of the Hyrum Dam and its spillway.
Kofford said they were looking at soil sample under the dam and spillway.
“It’s about dam safety, more specifically, fixing the spillway,” he said. “The dam is in really good shape; the spillway is at least 89-years-old.”
Although the core sampling has been taken, it could take over a year for the results to be finished and given to the public.
Kirt Lindley, the water tender for the south valley dam, said the results of the core drilling on Hyrum Dam probably wouldn’t be done until sometime next year.
“It will be a long drawn out process,” he said. “If we have them in a year, we will be lucky.”
The Bureau of Reclamation will take all of the samples and send them to Denver, Colorado for analysis.
“Then they will build a 3D model to see what the dam will do under pressure,” he said. “I wouldn’t expect the results anytime soon. If it comes before next year I will be surprised.”
“They were drilling to find a working design that will work for the spillway,” Lindley added. “It was also a way to check seismic stability of the dam.”
He said they wanted to see how thick the cement needed to be to replace the 100 year-old spillway.
“As far as the dam goes, they weren’t that concerned with it the dam is in good shape,” Lindley said. “It’s all about rebuilding the spillway.”
The Bureau has been working off a years-old study. The analysis will likely not be done until the spring of 2021. After that, they might start doing something.
On an unrelated matter, Lindley said the dam did freeze over a couple of days ago, and the ice fishermen are starting to fish through the ice.
“I think the ice is only about two inches thick and people should wait until the ice gets thicker,” he said. “It’s only been frozen for a couple of nights.”