Frehner Construction Company, Inc., a contractor hired by the Bureau of Reclamation to do renovation at Deer Creek Dam as part of Reclamation's Safety of Dams (SOD) program, has completed installation of the soldier piles at the downstream toe and spillway wall of the dam. The company has also completed the excavation of the shear key. Soldier piles are supports that hold soil vertical and allows for the excavation. A shear key is an excavation on the downstream face of a dam which is refilled with stronger and denser earth-fill material, and provides deep reinforcement of a dam.

On October 30, 2003, the company began backfilling the shear key. The renovation began on July 2, 2003 and the contractor expects to be finished with the work by January 2004. Shortly thereafter, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is expected to begin construction of the renovation of Highway 189 through Provo Canyon, and the portion of the alignment which will pass over the newly refilled shear key.

Deer Creek Dam is a zoned, earth and rock-fill structure with a height of 235 feet. It was constructed in 1941 with a capacity of 152,000 acre-feet of water. Deer Creek Dam is located 50 miles southeast of Salt Lake City and 14 miles northeast of Provo in Wasatch County. It provides water to the Metropolitan Water District for the communities of Salt Lake and Sandy.