The Anderson Dam Contract Just Got Signed. Your Trail Plans Shouldn't Wait For It.

Did Anderson Reservoir just take a real step toward filling back up? That's the question moving through Morgan Hill after Valley Water's Board of Directors awarded a $1.88 billion contract on July 24, 2026 to rebuild Anderson Dam, granting the work to the Flatiron Dragados Sukut ADSRP Joint Venture with construction set to begin in early 2027 and run seven years. Read the headline fast and it sounds like the finish line finally came into view.

Look at the dates a little more closely and a different pattern shows up. Every time this project clears a new milestone, the year Anderson actually reopens to hikers, picnickers, and anglers drifts a little further out, not closer in. If you've been holding off on a regular trail routine because you figured the lake would be back any year now, the contract that just got signed is your cue to stop waiting and build a routine around what's open today.

What Valley Water Actually Announced

The numbers are large enough to make news on their own. At a total cost of about $2.8 billion, the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project is one of the largest and most complex infrastructure projects in Valley Water's history. The dam was built in Morgan Hill to the seismic and dam safety standards of the day back in 1950, and the local water district has limited the capacity of the 1,271-acre reservoir to 10 percent or less since 2009, due to concerns that the existing dam could fail in the event of a major earthquake on a fault that passes next to it. Valley Water Board Chair Tony Estremera called it "our top priority" in a statement announcing the award.

That framing is accurate. It's also incomplete if you're trying to figure out when you'll actually be able to launch a kayak or fish from the shoreline again.

Why the Same News That Sounds Like Progress Pushes the Calendar Back

Go back to February 2025 and you'll find Valley Water's own environmental services team explaining why the project's original construction start had already slipped. The timeline shift from the original 2026 start date was necessary to coordinate state and federal environmental compliance processes. Environmental Services Manager Wendy Young put it plainly, saying the combined review process "bumped our schedule out where we couldn't get enough work done in 2026."

So the July 2026 contract award didn't move construction up. It confirmed the later start that had already been announced a year earlier, and it locked in a seven-year build on top of that. Run the arithmetic on an early-2027 start plus seven years and you land around 2034, well past the estimates that have circulated in the years since the reservoir first went dry.

Here's how that estimate has moved every time officials have updated it:

Even the public-facing sources don't agree with each other right now, which tells you something on its own. When an agency's own park page and its own construction contract point to different years, the safest assumption for anyone living nearby is that the later number is more likely to hold than the earlier one.

What's Actually Open at Anderson Right Now

None of this means the park is a construction zone you should avoid entirely. Access to the water itself is off the table, but a meaningful slice of the property is open and gets used every week by people who live nearby.

• Coyote Creek Parkway trails, Moses L. Rosendin Park, and Burnett Park remain part of the property and stay open for regular use.
• Trails are open from the Holiday Lake Drive entrance, and while the route to the boat launch parking lot is closed, hikers can still walk around Rosendin Pond and the knoll at the northwest end of the pond, where the trail to the top gives a good view of the lake and the valley.
• Family picnic areas along Coyote Creek stay open all year and are available first come, first served, with one group picnic area available to reserve in advance.
• Special regulations apply for fishing in Coyote Creek during the fishing season, which runs from April to November.
• Every June, Santa Clara County Parks marks Coyote Creek Habitat Day at the Coyote Creek Visitor Center, an event built around the wildlife of the creek corridor past and present.

That's a real, usable footprint. It's just a different footprint than the one longtime residents remember from before 2020.

The Wider Loop Worth Building Into Your Routine

If Anderson's reduced access has you looking for more mileage or more variety, South County gives you plenty of it within a short drive.

About three miles east of the reservoir sits Henry Coe State Park, the largest state park in northern California, protecting 87,000 acres of scenic hills and mountain ridges that draw backpackers, equestrians, mountain bikers, and day hikers looking for real solitude. Closer to town, Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve offers a scenic overlook from the western edge of the Coyote Valley along with multi-use trails and picnicking areas. Further south, Rancho Cañada del Oro Open Space Preserve sits in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains and has 12 miles of trails ranging from easy to challenging, open to hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians alike.

Pair any of those with a stop that's already part of the neighborhood's routine. The properties clustered near the park entrance make an easy add-on to a trail morning, among them Guglielmo Winery, Lightpost Winery, Morgan Hill Cellars, and Andy's Orchard, along with the weekly Morgan Hill Farmers' Market for anyone timing their loop around a Saturday.

What This Means If You Live Here

The headline version of this story is that Anderson Dam is finally getting rebuilt, and that's true. The version that actually matters for your weekend planning is that the rebuild's own timeline has moved later at every checkpoint since 2020, from an early hope of 2031 to a current park estimate of 2032 to a construction contract that, worked out on paper, points closer to 2034. Treat the closure as something measured in years rather than seasons, and the Rosendin Pond loop, the Coyote Creek picnic areas, and the wider ring of open space preserves and Coe stop being a workaround. They become the routine.

That's the kind of shift worth knowing before you plan a season of weekends around a lake that isn't coming back anytime soon, and it's the same close-to-the-ground read on Morgan Hill that shapes how Kimberly Macias talks with clients about this part of South County, whether they're weighing a move here or just trying to get the timing right on a sale. If you're curious what any of that means for your own plans, get your free home valuation and start the conversation.