The dry, cracked bottom of Tempe Town Lake will be covered with water again this week after sitting empty for dam construction.
The City of Tempe says it will begin returning more than 880 million gallons of water to the lake starting Tuesday morning. Filling the lake will take about two weeks.
The water will come from storage at Roosevelt Dam as well as water exchange credits from SRP that were earned from draining the lake into SRP canals over the last couple months.
RELATED: Timelapse video of dam removal at Tempe Town Lake
Last week, the last pieces of the old rubber dam were removed to prepare for the new dam -- the nation's largest hydraulically operated steel gate dam.
The new dam was constructed to be a long-term solution for lake maintenance. The City of Tempe expects it to last more than five decades.
Tempe Town Lake water activities are expected to resume at the end of April.
