Emergency & Carryover Storage Project (E&CSP)
San Diego
Award of Merit

Owner San Diego County Water Authority
Regulator California Dept. of Water Resources, Division of Safety of Dams
Planner, Owner’s Engineer GEI Consultants Inc.
Engineers of Record Parsons-Harza JV; CH2M; MWH Americas; Black & Veatch; McMillen Jacobs Associates; San Diego County Water Authority
Contractors Kiewit Infrastructure West Co.; The Walsh Group; Traylor-Shea JV; Shimmick-Obayashi JV; Pulice Construction Inc.

California’s $1.5-billion E&CSP—which took more than 15 years to complete—adds 196,000 acre-ft of water storage for San Diego and helps to prevent damage during seismic events. Work included finishing the 318-ft-high Olivenhain Dam and raising the San Vicente Dam by 117 ft.

Completing the megaproject required a large international base of materials, such as roller-compacted concrete, geomembrane liners, flow controls, gates, valves, pumps, motors and other items—hailing from countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Canada.

“There have not been very many large dam projects under design and construction in the United States in the past few decades,” says Michael Rogers, vice president of MWH Global, now part of Stantec. “Therefore, we looked to the experience of key material consultants and suppliers on work being done outside of the United States, where significant large dams and hydroelectric projects are being developed.”

Back to Global Best Projects 2016