Prior to these recent developments, rock quarry and materials processing operations had already been a focal point of activity at the Chimney Hollow Reservoir construction site. As of April, crews had stripped about 80 percent of the overburden (or upper layers) within the site’s 80-acre rock quarry. Crews are now excavating the more competent granite rock needed for construction of the dam that starts about 60-feet below the preconstruction ground surface.
As construction continues, the quarry’s equipment and crews will produce about 2-foot and smaller rock that will either be sent to the rock crushers (and then processed by WALO for the asphalt-core of the dam) or to the rock-fill portions of the main dam that will surround and support the asphalt core. Once dam construction kicks into full swing, the rock quarry and processing crews will be producing about 63,000 tons of material per day, making it one of the largest mining operations in Colorado.