They’re in deep do dah.
But at least they’ll have a nice train.
Californians may have to do without champagne and caviar for a while since daddy deep-pockets isn’t on the throne any longer.
Get a gold mining co to come in and bust all the rock out from the end of the damaged portion down to the river.
They will have that done in two to three months.
The Oroville Dam situation provides one aspect of this failure. We are dealing with repairs that could have been made ten years earlier at much less expense. Lack of judgement on the part of liberals has resulted in a situation where we must now spend many tens of millions by November or face the distinct possibility of wiping out a fairly large part of the state. Even if we spend the money, the weather may not cooperate by waiting until November or we may fail to get our money's worth for the repair costs.
Either way we are entering an era wherein the government's resources will be very limited at a time when demands on government will be serious and non-negotiable. It is the youth of our nation which will have to pay for these errors. The upside is that this will create a smarter generation with a deep conviction that "there ain't no free lunch".
I think I’d look at where the water wants to go, and line that with concrete instead of trying to put back the structure that didn’t work.
they won’t fix it until it rains again
No problem, the global warming crowd has said California is in a big drought.
The only way that will happen is if they start writing checks to contractors with lots of zeros; they don't let an EPA weenie within 20 miles of the site; and they write-off that entire valley for the first mile or so down stream of the dam - no questions asked. Then turn the contractors loose and they can make it happen - as long as Cali's loony left government doesn't "help" too much. (ie. any)
In other words, ain't gonna happen. I predict they'll screw around with environmental stuff for weeks, maybe several months. They'll come up with a complicated design that coupled with various constraints imposed won't even begin to be ready by November. Instead, they'll fumble along, and then along in October sometime they'll push the panic button and blow millions on emergency measures and wreak more havoc through the rainy season. They may, may be done by November - of 2018.
I have an alternate solution. Abandon the dam. Send all the illegal Mexican aliens in and around LA back to Mexico, and tell LA there will be no more water coming from the Oroville dam source. Open floodgates slowly and allow the lake to empty out slowly. Then allow the Feather River to flow naturally through the former Lake Oroville, as it did for thousands of years before the dam. Environmentalists will be happy with this solution. So will taxpayers.
High speed rail fund
Sacremento, CA
The spillway was poured in sections but it was not a lapped pour. In effect it was just big sections of concrete slabs. It it had of been a lapped structure the water going down the spillway could not have undermined the sections of concrete, engineering 101 and also aerodynamics which is fluid flow dynamics. The real hell of it is to make it a lapped spillway would have added minimal costs to the project.
The emergency spillway was a crime of engineering. They built it on unconsolidated ground. This was even a greater crime than the poorly designed spillway. In short order the water going over the emergency spillway started washing out the unconsolidated ground. If this had of continued it would have taken out the adjacent spillway and they would have lost the entire lake quickly and a catastrophic down stream flood would have occurred.
That is why they reopened the damaged spillway despite the damage to it. They damn near lost the lake.
It would be very interesting to see the original engineering proposals for the damn. Were the original proposals changed or was the engineering just piss poor.
Better worry about a 3.2 earthquake...Now...
Please ping the rest of the faithful.
The other Thread needs to be preserved for future research on this monster problem.
Please use this one for current data and upcoming data.
There is a huge rain storm hitting the bay area early tomorrow and more next week.
Throw in snow melt, and we have some possible dangerous factors impacting this damaged dam.
Pray for those living below this damaged dam and the workers.
Millions of illegals and not one an engineer.
I would sure like to get into some of those deep holes down in the riverbed at the base of the original spillway with my dredge.
To bad the stupid people in Sacramento outlawed dredging in the state.
Now their stuck.
Also they built the spillways on material that is not pure bedrock. That and a lack of maintenance screwed them.
Ed
Start lining it with steel and bring in the gunite crews!
In a more pragmatic age, it would be rebuilt by convicted felons roped together forming a human chain placing stone blocks hewn from a nearby quarry and rolled into position with logs on timbers. Beats having them working out and watching sports on flatscreen TV’s in the common area.
COMING SOON!!
California Collapsing: Dam, Just Dam!!
An Irwin Allen production
A Speilberger MoonBeam ‘Calamity Crisis’ is the ‘New Normal’ Film
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Join with us around the campfire as the dam cracks..
Listen to stories of missed opportunities..
When Brown was a color and not a state of mind..
and pine for the days when the woods were green..
or at least as full of green as the pocketbooks of Gaian followers.