Wake Forest Reservoir dam project moves toward construction

The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners was scheduled to consider a resolution for construction engineering and inspection services on the Wake Forest Reservoir dam project at its meeting on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at Town Hall on South Brooks Street. The reservoir sits off Wait Avenue on the north side of Wake Forest, and the town has a $4.7 million plan to rebuild its dam, tear down the old water plant and upgrade the boat ramp and parking lot.

The item appears as 5.C on the consent agenda in the meeting agenda, titled “Approval of a Resolution for CEI Services for the Wake Forest Reservoir Construction,” with two attachments: the resolution and a “Proposed CEI Scope and Fee.” The agenda itself does not name the engineering firm or give the fee. The town’s meeting summary, which describes itself as an overview of the board’s actions, lists the resolution among five consent agenda items but does not record a vote on it. As of September 22, 2026, the town had not published the outcome, the firm’s name or the amount.

What the $4.7 million project covers

The town’s asset maintenance projects page lists “Wake Forest Reservoir Improvements” at $4.7 million and puts the project in its design phase. The page breaks the work into these pieces:

• Improvements to the dam.
• Demolition of the G.G. Hill Water Treatment Plant.
• Phase I upgrades the parking lot, boat ramp, dock and bridges.
• Phase II adds a trail bridge at Oak Grove Church Road and continues the soft trail along the east side of the reservoir.

The page’s most recent update reads “Coordinating transfer of property from City of Raleigh to Town of Wake Forest.” It does not say which parcel is involved. The same page lists a separate $1.197 million Flaherty Park dam repair project, also in design.

Bids opened in May

The construction work went out as Bid #0003-2025, “Wake Forest Reservoir Dam Improvements,” on the state’s electronic Vendor Portal. The listing set a mandatory pre-bid conference for April 14, 2026, at 10 a.m. and a bid opening on May 26, 2026, at 2 p.m. in Meeting Room 001 A/B at 301 S. Brooks Street. Bidding documents were distributed through Duncan Parnell’s online bid room. As of September 22, 2026, the portal still showed the solicitation’s status as “Pending Selection” with no award recorded.

A construction contract did reach the board once before. The agenda for a special called session on June 23, 2026 listed item 2.1, “Approval for the Wake Forest Reservoir (Wake-176) Dam Improvements construction contract,” with a staff summary, a resolution, the bid documents and a bid tabulation as attachments. Wake-176 is the state’s inventory number for the dam. Wake Forest Matters reported on June 19, 2026, that Town Manager Kip Padgett said the town expected to bring the contract to that session. The town’s news release on the June 23 session covers only the appointment of Daniel Hupp to the open board seat and says nothing about the contract, and no meeting summary for that session is posted.

The dam project also moved through the planning department’s review. The town’s monthly development reports carried “Wake Forest Reservoir Dam Improvements” at Wait Avenue on the plans-under-review list from January 2026 through July 2026. It does not appear in the August 2026 report.

The town has not announced the construction contractor, the contract amount or a construction schedule, and it has not said whether the trail, boat launch or fishing access will close during the work. The town’s reservoir page carried no closure notice as of September 22, 2026. The last posted closure was on October 30, 2024, when the town shut the boat access area because of a blue-green algae bloom and reopened it after treating the water, according to a town notice.

A 1960s water supply the town got back in 2019

The reservoir was built as the town’s drinking water source in the early 1960s, according to the town’s reservoir page. Wake Forest merged its water and sewer systems with the City of Raleigh in July 2005, according to the town’s water and sewer page, and the reservoir page says the water plant was taken offline shortly after the merger, with limited operations still in place at the reservoir. Ownership of the reservoir was transferred back to the Town of Wake Forest in September 2019.

The trail came before the transfer. In 2012 and 2013, town staff and the Greenways Advisory Board worked with volunteers, mostly from Boy Scout Troop 5, to build more than a mile and a half of soft trail on the west side of the lake, according to the town’s soft trails page. JPM South, the developer, contributed resources, and Eagle Scout Ryan Welker built a section in 2013. The page lists the trail at 1.6 miles one way from the boat ramp to Oak Grove Church Road, or 3.2 miles round trip, on a natural surface, and says the town plans to extend it around the east side to complete a loop. That extension matches the Phase II work on the asset maintenance page.

The park is open daily from dawn to dusk. A gravel lot at the southern end of the reservoir is reached off Traditions Grande Boulevard near Wait Avenue, and a concrete boat launch serves paddle and electric-powered boats. Fishing is allowed with proper permits and licenses. The town’s rules prohibit alcohol, personal grills and crossing the reservoir on the spillway, and dogs must be leashed. The parks office number is 919-435-9560.