FAULKNER COUNTY, Ark. – The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) reached the halfway point in their five-year Lake Conway project by finishing most of their primary spillway, a passive concrete water-control wall holding lake water at a normal level.

When water would rise above the spillway, the water immediately flows out. Nick Feltz with the AGFC explained the special design they used for the primary spillway.

“It’s called a labyrinth or sawtooth style spillway,” Feltz said. “It’s kind of got some zigzags in it and so what that accomplishes is as water’s leaving the lake it comes to one of these zigzags in the spillway and it can fall over either edge.”

Feltz also emphasized how important getting to this point in the project was for the commission.

“I mean, from a price tag standpoint alone of the project that is a huge chunk of the pie, it really sets the tone to when we could potentially start holding water again and bringing the lake back,” Feltz said.

The next step was to continue work on their secondary gated structure.

“The secondary structure has some gates in it that we can open so at regular interviews to intervals to do future maintenance on the lake you know thinking 10, 20, 30 years down the road,” Feltz said.

According to Feltz, everything was on schedule to finish the whole project by their original end date, September 2028.

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