Orville Dam- The Latest

[Fred W]

Man says: I want to harness all this water to do my bidding.

Water says: Don't mess with Mother Nature.

Man always loses.

 

[TomInPA]

Does this improve the scale?

 

[eflyguy]

I had some NoCal friends arguing with me over the "lack of rebar" - they have had no idea of the scale of this thing.

I'm wondering, however, what exactly was underneath that concrete? Loose dirt? Did the weight of the water simply pound the surface enough to break it, leak thru, wash away the dirt? It looks paper-thin in these pics.

I'm no engineer, but I see no way to repair this without a MOUNTAIN of concrete directly over that bedrock.

 

[NTXFJR]

Pretty impressive. Looking at this pic makes the slab look to be around 2 or 3 ft thick?

 

[Mr_Canoehead]

There must have been some material between the bedrock and the spillway when it was built. It's hard to believe that normal inspections didn't see this coming.....

 

[El Toro]

This product was built on a foundation known to the State of California to cause cancer ... but they built it anyway.

 

[Bugnatr]

This product was built on a foundation known to the State of California to cause cancer ... but they built it anyway.

Good eye, green serpentine rock is common in the foothills of the Sierra's and is full of asbestos. It's all over the place around here.

Back in the 60's they didn't even have cancer causing lists, they just got the job done.

 

[Mount Rainier]

Here's one theory as to what caused the spillway to fail, Tiny bubbles.

Keep Going!

 

[Geezer]

Lawrence Welk did it?

Actually, the cavitation theory makes sense. What does not make sense is the fact that the engineering community knew about this risk and modified spillways at many other dams to mitigate cavitation, but nothing was done at this huge, important, and dangerous dam.

 

[RossKean]

I guess nobody thought that there would ever be enough rain in that part of the country to be a problem.

 

[NTXFJR]

Lawrence Welk did it?
Actually, the cavitation theory makes sense. What does not make sense is the fact that the engineering community knew about this risk and modified spillways at many other dams to mitigate cavitation, but nothing was done at this huge, important, and dangerous dam.

I'd be willing to bet that the engineering community made their recommendations, they aren't completely clueless on stuff like this, but that the political funding / prioritization processes got in the way

 

[El Toro]

Don't forget the short mixed concrete made to lesser specs than bid. Politicians appropriate money. Some of it goes to the intended project.