Holding water for 1.5 million people on the Wasatch Front, the Deer Creek State Park lake is a construction site – at least, in its southern region. A floating excavator is one component already in use, and soon, passersby on U.S. Highway 189 will see more equipment.
It’s a renovation project on the dam’s drainage facilities. Restoring the 80-year-old dam has been in the works for years. Planners expect it to take about three years, and the equipment floating on the water will be involved for about half of it.
“There is nothing wrong with Deer Creek. It is absolutely as safe as it's ever been,” said Dave Faux, facilities and lands manager for Provo River Water Users Association. “It is operating perfectly right now, this whole project is just preventative measures to keep us going continually for another 80 years without any issues.”
He says water users won’t be affected during construction.
Since much of the work will be done underwater, the reservoir won’t need draining.
“It's a pretty cool project,” Faux said. “First time in Utah where anything like this has been done completely underwater. We'll have scuba divers underneath. They're putting all the pieces together on what's called the intake structure, where the water flows through to those guard gates.”
Sailboat Beach on the lake is closed. Faux says it’s the staging area for the equipment out on the water. The project team says it will remain closed through March 2026.