Magnificant Views of ColeBrook Lake

Colebrook River Lake is located on the West Branch of the Farmington River in Colebrook, Conn., and is a part of a network of flood control dams on tributaries of the Connecticut River. Construction of the dam started in May 1965 and was completed in June 1969; costing $14.3 million. The project consists of an earthfill dam with stone slope protection 1,300-feet long and 223-feet high; an earthfill dike 1,240 feet long and 54 feet high; a gated circular outlet tunnel edged in rock 774 feet long and 10 feet in diameter; and a chute spillway cut in rock with a 205-foot-long concrete weir. The weir’s crest elevation is 29 feet lower than the top of the dam. At capacity, the dam can impound a lake of 1,185 acres containing 16.5 billion gallons of water for flood control purposes. This is equivalent to eight inches of water covering its drainage area of 118 square miles. To date, the project has prevented damages of $92.7 million since it was built (as of September 2011).