Oroville Dam Spillway Concrete Failure (Feather River Flooding, CA) 36

[msquared48]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ga.../ar-AAmLuQj?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=spartandhp#image=1

Erosion has created a 300-foot-deep hole in the concrete spillway of Oroville Dam and state officials say it will continue grow.
State engineers on Wednesday cautiously released water from Lake Oroville's damaged spillway as the reservoir level climbed amid a soaking of rain.

Situated in the western foothills of the Sierra, Lake Oroville is the second-largest manmade reservoir in California after Shasta....

Member Spartan: Stage storage flow data here for those interested:

https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryF?s=ORO

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[itsmoked]

Ah John, I see what you mean. Weird. All the state cameras seem to have that problem.
All the highway cameras do that too. You wait such a long time you think they don't work.

jgKRI; The spillway ends with those large teeth early for energy dissipation. The teeth
cause the water to go airborne and to collide with the arriving water. There's huge
energy available at the bottom of the spillway! If it went clear to the river it would
hydraulically mine the river out (scouring). Furthermore since that spillway cost about
$1b consider what it costs per foot.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Craig Neth]

The "road" at the base of the spillway is a temporary construction road that was built during the recovery.
Access across the spillway is somewhat limited without it.

The presumption is that it is quick to remove (few days work) and so they are leaving it until they know they will be operating the spillway.

 

[SwinnyGG]

jgKRI; The spillway ends with those large teeth early for energy dissipation. The teeth
cause the water to go airborne and to collide with the arriving water. There's huge
energy available at the bottom of the spillway! If it went clear to the river it would
hydraulically mine the river out (scouring). Furthermore since that spillway cost about
$1b consider what it costs per foot.

That makes sense- thanks for the explanation.

Hadn't occurred to me but when you think about it it's pretty obvious that the outflow would heavily erode the river bed... it'd be the same as switching on a waterfall a couple hundred feet tall.

 

[JohnRBaker]

It appears that they might be preparing to open the spillway. I say this because as seen from the webcam below, it looks like they're starting to remove the temporary road that was built across the setting pond at the end of the spillway discharge:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/live/lakeorovillesra_spillway

There has been a lot of rain in the area and with the warming temps, the snow melt must be having an impact on the lake level. They can only release just so much water through the power-plant and so it's inevitable that the spillway was going to used sometime this Spring.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[JohnRBaker]

Yes, it looks like they're almost done removing the temporary road across from the discharge end of the spillway and since they're working on Saturday, I suspect that the level of the reservoir has reached the point where they will soon need to use the spillway.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/live/lakeorovillesra_spillway

And this video shows that they've also removed a construction staircase and some pieces of equipment from the spillway itself, just another indication that it may soon be put to the test.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/live/lakeorovillesra_spillwaytop

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[JohnRBaker]

It's being rumored that there will be at least a test of the spillway this week. The level of the lake is nearly 40 feet above the entrance to the spillway gates and from what I've been able to find, the lake is raising about 9 inches per day, even with the generating plant running at what I suspect is near capacity. Besides, based on what I've found, the lake can only rise something less than 50 feet before water would start to flow over the emergency spillway.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/ar...roville-Dam-spillway-is-back-And-13728330.php

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[itsmoked]

Thanks John. Took 10 minutes for the video to suddenly appear after stating "video stream unavailable".

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

While the spillway gates are obviously not open, it does appear that a substantial amount of water is 'leaking' into the spillway proper. If you select the link below to the webcam, it pans around to four different views and one of them clearly shows water 'flowing' across the face of the spillway.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/live/lakeorovillesra_spillwaytop

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[dgallup]

NPR said they will begin testing the spillway today.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The spillway is open.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[azcats]

Anyone have link to a bottom view camera handy? I've got the top view one working.

 

[Craig Neth]

It's here, but getting hammered and times out a lot:

http://www.parks.ca.gov/live/lakeorovillesra_spillway

Here's a screen cap:

 

[Craig Neth]

Juan Browne is also streaming live on Youtube from a slightly different viewing location:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQmIklHMkY

 

[pre_engineer]

Their fix is equivalent to a new coat of paint on a rotting sinking house. I doubt they fixed the damn shifting a few inches forward. It needed extra pylons sunk into the Bedrock when it was first made, and it still needs them. also the water seems to be getting caught on the cracks in the cement... Again. when there's a big flow the cement will once again tear away.

 

[Craig Neth]

You mean like the ones they installed and pictured below? How many more do you figure are needed, and why?

 

[IRstuff]

"Their fix is equivalent to a new coat of paint on a rotting sinking house. I doubt they fixed the damn shifting a few inches forward. "

And this is insufficient? Based on what analysis?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Newly-rebuilt-Oroville-Dam-spillway-is-back-And-13728330.php[/URL]]The half-mile-long main spillway, where the initial fracture occurred, is now as wide as a 15-lane freeway and averages 7½ feet thick compared with 2½ feet in the original 1960s version. It is capable of handling up to 270,000 cubic feet of water per second, way more than dam operators ever expect to release and nearly twice the capacity of the old chute, which could handle only 160,000 cubic feet per second.

The new 3,000-foot-long spillway has steel pillars anchoring the structure 15 to 25 feet deep into bedrock and a modernized drainage system. The old spillway had only 5-foot-deep piles holding it in place.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[JohnRBaker]

This screen capture is a bit clearer. Those diffusion blocks really spreads the water out.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[JohnRBaker]

Here's a shot from the top of the spillway:

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[LionelHutz]

Their fix is equivalent to a new coat of paint on a rotting sinking house. I doubt they fixed the damn shifting a few inches forward. It needed extra pylons sunk into the Bedrock when it was first made, and it still needs them. also the water seems to be getting caught on the cracks in the cement... Again. when there's a big flow the cement will once again tear away.

You're in the wrong thread. look a little further down this forum for the thread which started based on a click bait BS story that the spillway was already failing again.

 

[dgallup]

I think this needs to moved to the ENGINEERING SUCCESS STORIES AND DISASTER PREVENTED forum.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.