The four gates, each roughly 8m by 11.6m and weighing approximately 50 tons, were installed in 1941 as part of the dam’s construction. Other than minor touch-up and isolated spot repair, the gates have not been comprehensively refurbished since 1967.
The gates will be dismantled, refurbished, painted and reinstalled individually. The work, scheduled to begin in November, will take about eight months to complete.
Parker dam is located on the California-Arizona border, 32km south of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It forms Lake Havasu, from which Colorado river water is diverted in the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct for delivery to central Arizona and the Colorado River Aqueduct for delivery to the southern California coast. The dam also releases water for delivery to agricultural and municipal users in southern Arizona, southern California and Mexico.
The project’s power plant generates nearly 400MkWh a year, and that energy is distributed in southern California and southern Arizona.
