The California Dept. of Water Resources (DWR) began releasing water from Oroville Reservoir earlier this month for the first time since the two-year, $1.1-billion emergency spillway reconstruction project was completed late last year.
While the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved $205 million in federal funds to reimburse California for costs to reconstruct the Oroville Dam spillways damaged by 2017 flooding, it declined to pay the remaining $306 million that the state’s Dept. of Water Resources (DWR) had requested.
Designing and building California’s $500-million Lake Oroville Spillways Emergency Recovery Project in just nine months—a job that typically would take 10 years—required an army of engineers and workers.
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.
