Repairing the Oroville Dam Spillway

In 2017, an unprecedented weather pattern hit northern California. This time, the rainfall was incredibly dense and produced one of the wettest months in the history of this area. As this rainfall hit, reservoirs and rivers were pushed to their limits.

After a couple weeks, there were signs of damage on the Oroville Dam. And, for the first time in the Dam’s history, the emergency spillway was activated. As a result, the people nearby this dam had to evacuate.

In repairing the cracks in the dam and its spillways, the engineers implemented the use of reinforced concrete. This allowed for the initial repair of the parts of the dam that were damaged by rainfall, while providing room for sustaining even more strenuous rainfall.

Also, a more advanced drainage system was implemented. This allowed for water to be removed from the dam at a faster rate. Because of this, the dam would not easily reach limits that pose a large threat to structural damage.

Along with this, concrete buttresses were added to this project, which further deterred damage and erosion. And in the case of flooding, a splash pad was added to protect the surrounding areas.

Over time, sections of the dam had to be revamped as a whole. So, stabilization efforts were taken to maintain this structure while certain areas had major replacements of concrete slabs.

Water resource management is a serious concern in California. With droughts being common and rainfall being unpredictable, civil engineers in this state have to be prepared for a variety of scenarios. In this case, engineers had to prepare for disastrous flooding while saving water through the efficient implementation of spillways. However, civil engineers should not wait until times of crisis to implement such infrastructure, and should begin looking for areas of improvement. And in the long term, this billion dollar project is just one of many projects that will help California manage water in an efficient manner.