CPR: The California Department of Water Resources acknowledged this week that many cracks have appeared in the new concrete of the Oroville Dam spillway, which cost over $500 million to repair.
The State of California is believed to have spent $100 million each month on Oroville Dam during February, March and April in a crisis effort to try to stabilize America’s tallest dam, which suffered a near collapse and forced the evacuation of 200,000 downstream residents earlier this year.
The Kiewit Corporation, which was issued a $275 million contract in April to repair both of Oroville Dam’s main and emergency spillways, poured a 1,700-foot cement top sheet and then roller-compacted and smoothed the spillway’s surfaces shortly before the November 1 contract deadline. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) inspected the work and certified the first phase of the massive repair job was completed on time.
But the Sacramento Bee reported that cracks were first detected in September “when the first phase was nearing completion.” The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which has federal oversight over the California owned dam, instructed DWR on October 2 to investigate “cracking of the erosion resistant concrete” on the repaired spillway and to recommend any further steps necessary to address infrastructure risks.
The California Division of Dams wrote a letter to FERC on November 7 to reassure regulators that “the presence of hairline cracks was anticipated and is not expected to affect the integrity of the slabs.” DWR spokeswoman Erin Mellon added, “All concrete has this result in the placement. It’s just physics of how concrete works.”
But KQED reported that Robert Bea, a professor emeritus of civil engineering and founder of the highly respected UC Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Management, stated, “Cracking in high-strength reinforced concrete structures is never to be expected.” MORE
Hey…it’s CA. Dykes worked on this dike.
They mixed the concrete to wet which changes the PSI rating
Make the dam out of fudge and make sure it’s compressed. I’m sure there are countless male volunteers that would love to pack the fudge.
The contractor assured me that “They all do that.” He stands behind his work….waaay back.
Well, sure. What quality of work do you expect for a measly $500000000?
Blame FERC. Useless corrupt federal oversight. Bleeding taxpayers dry and in the pockets of corporations. Californians just got FERCed, again.
https://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/safety.asp
Next time make the engineers live downhill from the dam.
Maybe then it will be fixed right.
Watch how fast they start begging for Federal funds…
This is what happens when politicians award contracts to their worthless brother-in-law.
A LEAKY DYKE WITH CRACK
Yeah, that sounds like California…
That’s just how the physics of concrete works. Really? I’d have to know where he earned his engineering degree.
I wonder if all the fish that swim into the concrete wall of the Oroville Spillway and all say dam now want to file a class action lawsuit against the State of California for illegal impediment of reaching their spawning grounds under the Endangered Species Act. Believe me, there’s probably some ecotwinkie who would do it to save the fish. That would be something we could all say dam about. Dam, dam, dam, the ESA.
The kind of workmanship the Soviet Union was famous for. I’m seeing a connection.
A little spackle’ll cover that up.
Put a finger in it.
Here’s a pic taken by Lois Cameron in 2013 showing where the dam spillway broke apart.
http://www.abc10.com/news/local/verify/verify-was-the-oroville-spillway-damaged-in-2013/407976121
@Left Coast Dan: I saw their spackle job on the upper spillway, I also saw them examining the area where the spillway blasted apart. I trust Dr. Bea over anything DWR has to say. Fifty years of negligence and more negligence with the repair. We’re screwed and so are the farmers downstream.
Glad my family lives above the dam. I guess they just don’t want to pack up and leave. I did in ’79, to OR/WA. And in 2002 from WA to NE. I will die here.
I,m sure the job was awarded to the very best contractor for the job. No kickback, labor skimming politically connected crook got close to this bid.
Not to be controversial or anything, but I noticed in a lot of pictures where the people are named (workers actually doing work) it was always ending with ‘ez’. But when the inspectors were photographed, there were no ‘ez’ ending names. Were they using illegals or barely legal workers on that project? I think it’s a fair question to ask.
An old man that had been pouring and finishing residential concrete for over 40 years told me, “ya see …. they’s two kinds of concrete. They’s concrete that’s cracked and they’s concrete that’s gonna crack.”
I would expect a much higher degree of resilience for this type of installation and the amount of money used.
They always use the low bidder in California contracts. Now you know why the bid was low, a lot of the required parts were skipped over!
@ MJA There is one named Freedo Ban-Deedo.
But everyone calls him Chip.