LOVELAND >> Northern Water is getting closer every day to filling up its new Chimney Hollow reservoir. In fact, the entire project is a good month ahead of projections.

Chimney Hollow principal project manager Joe Donnelly said the plan is to begin filling the $720 million, 90,000-acre-foot reservoir by July 1.

Northern Water has been building the 740-acre Chimney Hollow Reservoir as a part of the Windy Gap Firming Project, which will provide a consistent flow of 30,000 acre feet of water to its 12 member entities and cities every year, and send water to 825,000 people across Northern Colorado.

At its Fall Water Symposium at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Loveland Conference Center, Northern Water’s Donnelly reported on construction progress to date, or rather “the successes we’ve had as we wind down to the last eight months of construction before we start filling it.

“This is a project that Northern Water has been working on for 25 years, and generations of engineers (have) put fingerprints on this project as well as hundreds of thousands of people,” Donnelly said. It took 18 of those years just to permit it.

Today, a principal part of the project is the state’s largest dam at 350 feet. The $253 million dam is now at 285 feet, with 70 feet to go, so it is 90% complete.

On the other end of the reservoir is the Saddle Dam, which is 40 feet tall, and similar to dams at Carter Lake and Horsetooth Reservoir. That dam has about three feet of fill to completion.

The spillway, which is one of the first spillways in Colorado that “was designed to consider climate change,” also is 90% complete, and is scheduled to be finished next month.

Crews also are working on a 2,000-foot tunnel, which is 99% complete, with some remaining pipework that will connect to various other water tunnels.

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