OROVILLE DAM: Spillways construction update

A controlled blast clears rock for the placement of the roller-compacted concrete splashpad downslope from the Lake Oroville emergency spillway in Butte County, California. Photo taken November 28, 2017.  (Ken James, DWR)

Today the Department of Water Resources (DWR) provided an update on construction activities on the Lake Oroville Spillways Emergency Recovery Project.  

Construction on the Main Spillway

  • General site cleanup, concrete finishing, joint sealing and completion of drainage systems continues at the 3,000-foot gated flood control spillway, also known as the main spillway. This finishing work is expected to be complete by the end of 2017.
  • As noted previously on November 1, the main spillway has been substantially reconstructed to handle flows of 100,000 cubic feet per second for the 2017/2018 flood season.
  • The structural concrete sections of the main spillway have cured as anticipated. FERC has agreed with DWR that there are no repairs needed.
  • Construction will resume on the main spillway in spring of 2018, likely in May. The exact date will be determined by hydrology and snowpack conditions.

Construction at the Emergency Spillway

  • Work continues at the emergency spillway. The underground secant pile wall is on schedule for completion in January 2018.
  • Crews have completed approximately 60 percent of the secant pile wall.
  • Earlier this month, crews began excavation of bedrock to prepare the site for construction of the roller-compacted buttress and splash pad below the emergency spillway in 2018.

Oversight Update

  • DWR has posted memo #13 from the independent Board of Consultants recapping the 13th meeting. DWR is meeting with the BOC for the 14th time this week.

The latest video from DWR …

Crews excavate in preparation for emergency spillway repairs. Drilling continues on the cut-off-wall..

Daily emailsSign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!

Sign up for daily emails and get all the Notebook’s aggregated and original water news content delivered to your email box by 9AM. Breaking news alerts, too. Sign me up!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email