Oroville dam spillway damaged

[JakesKTM]

The Feather River is the one most impacted by Oroville Dam/Spillway releases and it's high, but not 1997 high. I think it has peaked. I live near the river. No one here is freaking out over the spillway, at all. The spillway is out in front of the dam. Its failure only means more debris to salvage in the summer and more repairs. As far as flow, like I said its not 1997 levels. We still have about 20 feet of levee showing. 1997 was about 3 feet.

 

[Climber]

What are you talking about? Been looking forward to taking a bullet train to Bakersfield for years!

Yeah, but you'll have to drive down to Fresno to do it!

 

[FXCLM5]

The cause found.

lol

 

[teg916]

As best as I can tell, the emergency spillway would dump into the damaged spillway, at least partially.

 

[Mike95060]

The Feather River is the one most impacted by Oroville Dam/Spillway releases and it's high, but not 1997 high. I think it has peaked. I live near the river. No one here is freaking out over the spillway, at all. The spillway is out in front of the dam. Its failure only means more debris to salvage in the summer and more repairs. As far as flow, like I said its not 1997 levels. We still have about 20 feet of levee showing. 1997 was about 3 feet.

The fall of 1997 was the first year I moved to Santa Cruz from NJ. For a while I thought that much rain was normal.

 

[auntiebling]

FUUUUUCCKKKKKKK

The scary part is that keeping it open is their only good option at this point. That emergency overflow has not shut off and it doesn't filter anything. Trees, rocks, you name it, it will go down that side...

since the current flow is washing the hillside away, it's effectively already happening. emergency spillway will be an order of magnitude worse though

DAM!!!

you mean SPILLEDWAY!
?

Making more work for themselves and eroding quite a bit, but the water still goes roughly where it should. Pretty gnarly though. There's going to be sooooooo much road work and repairs like this come spring.

it wouldn't surprise me if that entire front section of spillway falls down or is swept away entirely. it's going to take more than one "dry season" to repair that at standard california bureaucracy speed and since this isn't an east bay freeway overpass that melted.... and it's in the hills a little thus the environmental hurdles will be high... repairs should be complete just in time for the next drought. in the mean time, they'll probably call the Emergency Spillway the Alternative Spillway and get a bunch of migrant farm workers to form a bucket brigade if needed.

 

[Kalvin00]

They're now letting 65000 cfs of water out... it'll be interesting to see how much worse this got overnight.

 

[Brokenlink]

since the current flow is washing the hillside away, it's effectively already happening. emergency spillway will be an order of magnitude worse though



you mean SPILLEDWAY!
?



it wouldn't surprise me if that entire front section of spillway falls down or is swept away entirely. it's going to take more than one "dry season" to repair that at standard california bureaucracy speed and since this isn't an east bay freeway overpass that melted.... and it's in the hills a little thus the environmental hurdles will be high... repairs should be complete just in time for the next drought. in the mean time, they'll probably call the Emergency Spillway the Alternative Spillway and get a bunch of migrant farm workers to form a bucket brigade if needed.

Not entirely true. It's an emergency repair so they can bypass ceqa.

 

[bluegixxer600]

This was allegedly taken in 2013, looks like some work going on in the problem area.

 

[Bowling4Bikes]

The fall of 1997 was the first year I moved to Santa Cruz from NJ. For a while I thought that much rain was normal.

that was a crazy year. I lived way up empire grade back then. commuting to and from the campus with an old toyota tercel was really hairy on that road. so much debris made traction very optional, especially around some of the tighter and steeper corners. IIRC some guy drove into a sinkhole off of ice cream grade and drowned that year. A big portion of west cliff drive fell into the ocean as well.

 

[wazzuFreddo]

That'll buff right out. Plug it with some Trump wall.

Mexico will pay for it

 

[Climber]

This picture was apparently a span of 3 days.

 

[auntiebling]

Not entirely true. It's an emergency repair so they can bypass ceqa.

Did not know that! (Obviously)

I'll still put money on "they will need more than one summer to fix it"

They have a lot of fill dirt to find, let alone get it into the hole. Maybe they'll build a bridge... or a ramp! I'd vote for a ramp, so there is an awesome waterfall we the spillway is active. What could possibly go wrong? tons of stuff....

 

[aminalmutha]

Maybe they can cancel the HSR to nowhere project and use the money for infrastructure where it's really needed!

As long as Jerry Brown and his ilk are in charge, we will have failing roads, bridges and dams and a shiny new Monorail to Shelbyville... in 50 years. After his cronies become billionaires.

 

[NorCalAthlete]

Wasn't Feinstein's husband the one who landed the HSR contract?

 

[mean dad]

and a shiny new Monorail to Shelbyville... in 50 years. After his cronies become billionaires.

 

[aminalmutha]

Wasn't Feinstein's husband the one who landed the HSR contract?

So I've heard.

 

[CABilly]

As long as Jerry Brown and his ilk are in charge, we will have failing roads, bridges and dams and a shiny new Monorail to Shelbyville... in 50 years. After his cronies become billionaires.

He'all use this to sell the tunnels.

"We could have saved all this headache if we'd just sent all that dangerous extra water to socal."

 

[Phanuel]

since the current flow is washing the hillside away, it's effectively already happening. emergency spillway will be an order of magnitude worse though.

How is the emergency spillway designed? Is it a concrete wall at the top as well so that that top of the reservoir on the west side doesn't just get washed down the hill as debris and completely bypass the dam?

 

[Entoptic]

How is the emergency spillway designed? Is it a concrete wall at the top as well so that that top of the reservoir on the west side doesn't just get washed down the hill as debris and completely bypass the dam?

It's made from concrete that is lower then the dams highest point. No bells and whistles. It's a scary thought to see it in action.