Although construction will take several more years, the Roy Blunt Reservoir will supply seven million gal. of water daily to more than 100,000 residents across a 10-county region in Missouri when completed. Formerly known as the East Locust Creek Reservoir, the multi-million project calls for a 2,300-acre water supply and recreational lake currently under construction in rural Sullivan County, Missouri.
"Reservoirs are very difficult to permit federal and state clearances," Chad Sayre, Allstate Consultants vice-president told Construction Equipment Guide. "There are very few of them nationally, in the Midwest and in Missouri that have been designed, permitted and built in the last 40 years where federal funds were resourced as part of the funding. A full environmental impact statement process is required to obtain the clearances required to begin advanced construction processes even prior to the dam itself and the permitted flood spillway systems.
"In our case, the dam and spillway are slated to be bid in late July," said Sayre. "This reservoir is a multi-purpose reservoir where a super majority of its designated permitted purpose is drinking water supply. Remaining purposes are flood control, combined with recreation impacts to the state and local economy."
The project honors Missouri native and former U.S. Senator Roy Blunt, who played a key role in securing almost $80 million in federal funds to help pay for the reservoir. In addition, the North Central Missouri Regional Water Commission (NCMRWC) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) signed a contract which provides an extra $62.9 million of NRCS funds, representing the balance of federal funds needed to complete the 79-ft.-tall earthen dam and spillway.
According to the official news release, Olsson is the engineer of record for the dam and is the contract administrator for work performed. A general contractor will be selected and will team with pre-qualified specialty contractors to carry out the work.
"Following the bid for the dam and spillway, we will progress with the raw water intake and pump station, which will convey the water from the reservoir to the drinking water treatment plant," said Sayre. "It's also currently being improved and expanded with a construction project to be ready for the dam and spillway completion."
The necessary bridges for the project were substantially completed in December 2025. Since then, lakebed clearing operations have been ongoing. Sayre explained that in order to prepare for the dam and spillway, many tasks and large construction projects had to be finished.
"There were many hundred acres of tree harvesting, as well as clearing and disposal of the lakes and utility corridors and access road. Also, the future marina and pump state site had to be properly cleared of organics and trees and brush.
"This process will continue over the next few years as the dam is built. The normal pool acreage is approximately 2,250 acres, so there are a lot of preparations to control organics and lakebed management to benefit long-term water quality."
Cleaning the lakebed began around 2016 and included removing solid waste. Tree clearing for the dam site began in 2021, with the clearing of navigation channels continuing. Work on roads began in 2022. Access roads had to be built to assist in the clearing, as well as long-term road impact replacements, prior to the reservoir inundation.
"More than 15 miles of roadways are involved and impacted," said Sayre. "These new roads and advanced work total approx-imately $60,000,000 and involved many spanning bridges which had to be in place."
Roadway replacements and rehabilitation projects have been time-consuming, according to Sayre.
"While we were working on the roadway projects for the construction access, utility corridors were also advanced to replace water lines, electric lines, fiber lines etc. These current projects for utilities in the works total approximately $15,000,000 to make sure the region's utilities are completed in advance of inundation."
"We are progressing on many planned projects that will be completed concurrently with the dam and spillway. After that, other projects will continue such as the marina and recreational areas to access the reservoir."
The reservoir also will be managed to provide storm-water, flood mitigation and recreational benefits to the public. Projects in the design phase include a regional sewer effort that will bring services to the village of Pollock, as well as the many existing residences along its corridor of service.
The city of Milan is planning to receive the wastewater, treat it at its wastewater treatment plant and play a role in the operations of the regional sewer as a member of the NCMRWC. The NCMRWC is the local sponsor and owner of the reservoir and its appurtenances.
The project is funded by the citizens of Sullivan County, current NCMRWC customers, NRCS and the State of Missouri.
