MAYFLOWER — Contractors with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission last week began removing old infrastructure at Lake Conway Dam to make room for a new water-control system and weir as part of the scheduled Lake Conway renovation project.
The previous dam, built in 1948, was operated with metal gates that required manual operation to raise or lower water levels. Over 75 years, the infrastructure was in need of replacement, so the AGFC saw the perfect opportunity for a lake-wide reset. The new water-control system will be a concrete labyrinth weir that will maintain a single water level throughout the lake as water passes over it. According to Reid Phifer, assistant chief of operations for the AGFC, the design of the weir will allow as much water as a traditional 600-foot wide spillway, but fit within the footprint of the existing dam structure.
“We’ve gated off access during the construction for safety, and contractors have built a turnaround there,” Reid Phifer, assistant chief of operations at the AGFC, said. “Contractors have already torn out the old log-catcher in front of the old dam and are putting in the coffer dam this week.”…