Dramatic new images show scale of damage to Oroville spillway

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/28/2017 | Peter Fimrite

[mad_as_he$$]

Todd Hoffman and crew will be showing up tomorrow. It is gold country.

[Ozark Tom]

How much panning going on?

[jonrick46]

Jerry Brown's father was California's father when the Orovill Dam was constructed. He had issues with the funding of this colossus, even with federal funds. He tried to hide the real costs of the dam from the public in order to get voter approval. Maybe there was an effort to reduce costs. Looking at this photo of the damage, do you notice something lacking? There is almost no REBAR in the concrete. If there was REBAR in the spillway concrete, you’d see a mesh lattice of it left behind in the hole, or at least a few sticking out at odd angles. I don’t see any REBAR, do you?

I maintain that the thickness of the concrete was insufficient. That combined with the lack of REBAR caused a weak structure and points to an effort to reduce costs. I am sure Jerry Brown Jr. will make sure no fingers point to his father as the culprit.

[vette6387]

Doesn’t look like the kind of construction you’d think necessary for this kind of structure. Also, there was some issue with the need to add turbulators to the surface of the spillway to break up the flow regimes and prevent the water from “scouring” the concrete surface that was thought to be necessary back ten years ago or more, but which was never funded. I will see if I can find anything on it.