Costing $6M and taking 18 months, the work was part of an ongoing upgrade at the dam which involved: strengthening the roadway bridge over the spillway; cutting down the original concrete columns and replacing them with new steel columns and lifting gantry; replacing the original chain winches used to lift the spillway gates with new hydraulic rams manufactured in Holland; and strengthening of the spillway gates.
The Roxburgh dam generated its first power in July 1956 and can still produce 320MW. Two of the eight turbines had been upgraded, with work on a third underway
