FALLON — Workers have completed a canal they call Nevada's "big dig" to help keep flood waters from damaging homes.
Floodwaters from the Carson River will now flow underneath U.S. Highway 50 to the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge.
The canal runs 17 miles and had taken six weeks to build. It had been built in preparation of the Sierra snowmelt.
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A U.S. Bureau of Reclamation official says he feels the canal will be able to handle the snowmelt.
The "big dig" is one of several projects that have been implemented in the Lahontan Valley in response to the record snowpack piled in the Sierra Nevada.
Another project was an emergency weir on the V-Line Canal below Lahontan that diverts water into low-lying desert areas.