Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Keith McCord Reporting A lot of water engineers and construction foremen in Salt Lake are smiling!
They've just completed a major new section of a water pipeline project that will help serve the needs of all of us in the years ahead.
Those workers are smiling about this reservoir, which will soon hold 40-million gallons of water! They started filling it up yesterday and it will take a few weeks before it's full.
This is just one part of a big project that will keep the water flowing to the residents of Utah.
This is all part of the Point of the Mountain Aqueduct Project which is bringing a new supply of water into the Salt Lake and Sandy area.
Randy Leuttinger, Point of the Mountain Aqueduct Project Manager, "And the overall project benefits the entire valley with tie-ins to the west side and the Jordan Valley water conservancy district's system; so the overall ability to move water around to provide growth in the valley is greatly benefited by this project."
The entire project has a lot twists and turns and bends. The water line is 12 miles long.
One of the most difficult challenges was the section that went underneath I-15. Back in November of 2005, we took you inside the pipe, to show how workers were actually hand-digging the rock and debris, as a huge hydraulic machine pushed the pipe underneath the freeway a total of 325 feet!
Today, that pipe is full of water which is now filling this reservoir, adjacent to a new water treatment plant.
Randy Leuttinger: "Over the next few weeks, raw water is going to fill up the pond behind us, and then we'll go through some testing and certification procedure. The point of the mountain water treatment plant is initially projected to provide 70-million gallons of water per day to the salt lake and sandy areas."
A new water treatment plant, adjacent to the pond, will be used to purify the water for household use.
That 70-million gallons will serve the needs of a half-million people.
Again, this Metropolitan Water District project will continue in the testing phase for the next couple of months.
Water will start flowing from here to your kitchen faucet early next summer.
