On Thursday, Ogden City and other entities invited area media to the city’s well fields on the shore of Pineview Reservoir to discuss the status of the project.

Ogden City Public Services Executive Director Justin Anderson was able to deliver some good news to interested parties.

“The project is going very smoothly,” he said. “I want to say we are ahead of our January 1st schedule deadline, and so we’re planning on continuing to do that.”

He also took time to point out the progress that has been made on the project.

“Off to my right over here you can see is the new 48-inch line that is going in,” he said. “You can also see some anchors going in. And what’s going to be happening right there is you’re going to see that being backfilled here shortly as that line finish gets completely installed. And then eventually the roadway and the platform will be removed.

“Then also off to my left here you can see the temporary bypass line that snakes behind me. That’s what we’re feeding Ogden City residents right now is with that temporary bypass. And then also the other pipeline that you see going in is being slip-lined. It’s a 32-inch HDPE line that’s being slip-lined into our existing pipe.”

The 32-inch line will fit inside of the old pipeline and provide redundancy and additional water flow for years to come.

Anderson noted that the city is also collaborating with state and federal partners to help with the lake’s remediation as it refills following this phase of the water line project.

“Ogden City is contributing $200,000, and the DNR is contributing $50,000, and they will also be installing a lot of fish habitat in Pineview Reservoir to help any negative impacts that the fish population may have had,” he said. “Also, another exciting event, which is in collaboration with the state and the Forest Service, is we have the Port Ramp Marina behind me that is going to be getting completely replaced.”

He noted that the effort has been a bit of a rarity.

“In my time working at Ogden City, I’ve never had anything go so smooth in collaborating with both a federal agency, a state agency and a local government agency for the benefit of our community,” he said. “I just think that is something very positive.”

Ashley Klase, Ogden District ranger with the U.S. Forest Service, spoke briefly on the Port Ramp project.

“We’re really excited about everything happening at Port Ramp,” she said. “We already had a large construction project going over there for a new point day use site, as well as updates and renovations to traffic patterns to help make things safer. And then the newest collaboration that we’ve been able to make happen that is just great news is to fully replace the actual ramp itself.”

Chris Penne, regional aquatics program manager with the Utah DNR, said that they would like to take full advantage of the opportunity of a largely exposed lakebed.

“Ogden City and the Division of Wildlife agreed going into this that we wanted to see the fishery at Pineview bounce back better than it was even before,” he said. “Our plan is to do about 1,300 large fish structures that’ll go in areas that’ll be covered in deeper water when the reservoir levels come up. We’re going to be at about 40, 50 feet deep, but right now we’ve got a really once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to actually place these structures on the reservoir bottom while it’s dry so that we can get them exactly where we want them and in the configuration that we want them. And what these will do is they’ll serve as nursery and cover habitat for small fish and then fish attractors for larger fish, which will be a boon for anglers.”

Anderson finished by proclaiming just how much confidence he has in the project and its longevity.

“We expect the infrastructure projects that we’re doing right now, none of us will be alive when this needs to be replaced,” he said. “In fact, probably none of our kids will be alive when this needs to be replaced. We’re really proud of that, to provide such a sustainable project for our community where water is so important to be able to make sure that people have that in a reliable fashion.”

Following completion of the Pineview Reservoir phase, the project will continue over the next couple of years in Ogden Canyon.

For more information and updates on the project, visit https://ogdencitypipeline.com/