Following an independent report's sharp criticism of its dam safety culture,
California's Dept. of Water Resources named a new director and restructured its executive team as work crews continue a $500-million project to repair the spillways at Oroville Dam.
A mix of brute force and cutting-edge technology enabled contractors to replace a large portion of Oroville Dam’s spillway chute in just 165 days, meeting a Nov. 1 deadline set in anticipation of the start of northern California’s winter rainy season.
A comprehensive panel discussion covering lessons learned during last spring’s spillway failure at Oroville Dam was a highlight of the annual Dam Safety conference.
If initial lessons included in an interim status report on the cause of February’s failure of the main spillway at California’s Oroville Dam are heeded, hundreds of U.S. dams more than 50 years old may have to be re-examined and upgraded.
