Helper City recently sent out a notice to their residents about conversing water due to a UDOT Culvert Project taking place near the Crandall Canyon area that will affect the city’s culinary water. The original date was set for August 15 but due to the recent rain storms officials are now one week behind schedule.

“As far as the construction schedule goes, we’re looking at Monday the first part of this precast concrete structure showing up on site. By Tuesday, a large crane will come in to help set those structures and then it will take us about a week. Right now, we are only setting that in the east bound lane, once that’s complete in a week or two, we’ll backfill that new structure, switch traffic over, and then start excavating in the west bound lane,” said Area Engineer, Daniel Hinckley. Officials are looking at the end of the month, possibly the beginning of September before they will be required to turn off the water to Helper City. The contractor is allowed to shut the water off for 10 hours and they anticipate that the disruption should not be a huge inconvenience as the tanks should be full.

The reason for the road construction project is due to the burn scar left by the Bear Fire a few years ago. “Some of the most severe burning and the largest area of that burning happened up in Crandall Canyon. As the trees burned off, as the soil burned, it becomes what we call hydrophobic, which means the soil is literally afraid of water and so it doesn’t absorb any water. So you get increased runoffs, increase sediment loads, and of course with all that comes boulders and other debris down the canyon. Initial estimates said that flows down the canyon would increase 19 times of what they historically had been. The existing culvert in the canyon was about a 9-foot diameter metal pipe. As we had some severe storms in the Fall of 2021, the Spring of 2022, we just knew we had to do something,” said Hinckley. Once this project is done it should eliminate any flooding issues in that area.

The city is asking residents to practice water conservation while this project is taking place. “So you know we’ve been in a severe drought for a number of years, as has most of Utah. So the exercises we’re asking people to take in this event really are a good practice – shorter showers, fill your dishwasher. If you have any leaks in your home, you would be shocked at how much water is wasted that way. So just being a good steward of water, especially living in a high desert, which is what we are, is critical for all of us, really all of the time,” said Helper City Mayor, Lenise Peterman. Practicing water conservation now will better help the city when the water does get turned off in a few weeks.

Definite dates as to when the water will be turned off will be shared on Helper City’s social media pages. If residents have questions or concerns they are urged to call City Hall at (435) 472-5391.