In some ways the February event is a fortunate occurrence. This dam has many features that could be in pending failure status and needed through and comprehensive examination.
The levels of these problems are not yet being admitted to by the public officials owning and operating the structure, but with the big spillway project underway, they will probably relent and examine and repair the other deficiencies with less fanfare.
Additional observations from my daily view of the “dam cam” located across the river of the spillway.
They are making great progress in busting up the lower part of the spillway, and have been systematically removing the end of the upper spillway to give it a clean edge, which is good. It will be interesting to see how they go about busting up the bottom end of the old spillway, or if they decide to re-use that last section (would they even consider this?). Breaking those big concrete “diffusers” will make for some exciting video if they use explosives. Maybe a MOAB would be appropriate. :)
It bugs me a bit to see all the dirt and debris being pushed back into Moonbeam (AKA Kroyles) canyon, because in the event that they need to make emergency use of the main spillway again, that will become debris that will need to again be dredged out of the river.
Looks like the concrete facility between the dam and spillway is almost complete. I’m going to go on a wild guess pathway here and say that this facility will be used for the main spillway work, while the concrete plant they’ve put up in the launch ramp parking lot near the emergency spillway will be used for work on that area.