FOLSOM DAM,
NOVEMBER 2, 2015
enr.com
CONTRACTOR BUSINESS QUARTERLY
(P. CBQ1)
FOLSOM DAM,
FULL ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE | PART 4
Unprecedented partnership among federal agencies speeds crucial $900-million upgrade (P.30)
WATERSHED AGREEMENT
Two federal agencies formed a first-ever $900-million partnership to upgrade Folsom Dam and protect Sacramento from potential floods By Aileen Cho in Folsom, Calif.
INFRASTRUCTURE
30
ENR
I
PHOTOS COURTESY OF USACE
COVER STORY
t may seen ironic at first glance that the region. “Yes, we have periods of drought, but it U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the LOW & SLOW ACROSS could turn over this year and go into a period of flood control for several years.” U.S. Bureau of Land Reclamation are fastAMERICA’S tracking a $900-million effort to INFRASTRUCTURE For years, both federal agencies had been address flood-risk and dam-safety issues at making efforts to protect California’s capital, SacFolsom Dam, located near Sacramento, Calif., amid ramento, which lies in the crosshairs of a potential a headline-making, ongoing drought. But project officials severe flood. In the mid-2000s, planning to strengthen are looking at the long term. the dam for a 200-year-storm event, the bureau consid“Local folks know that what we have is feast or famine ered installing a spillway plug, and the Corps considered with precipitation and the snowpack,” says Drew Lessard, enlarging the gates, to redirect water flows. “For various area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation’s mid-Pacific reasons, we had challenges facing [both] of our missions,
November 2, 2015 enr.com
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PHOTO COURTESY OF USACE
so we ended up getting together in 2005 and formulating this joint federal project,” says Lessard. “This is the first time we’ve put resources together.” With six submerged Tainter gates and an auxiliary spillway that will work in conjunction with the existing dam gates, the Joint Federal Project (JFP) addressed both missions while shaving about $500 million from the budget, Lessard estimates. The agencies shortened to 2017 the original 2021 deadline for the JFP in a commitment to Congress, says Sgt. Jeremy Nelson, a Corps quality-assurance representative. “This is the first time the Corps partnered with another federal agency,” he says. The project reflects the ongoing reality of having to pool resources and form new partnerships to get infrastructure missions accomplished—a theme seen consistently throughout ENR’s cross-country “Low & Slow Across America’s Infrastructure” tour, which marked the JFP as its last major construction-site stop. Folsom Fears “Folsom is a unique facility,” says Lessard. “It’s a multipurpose reservoir. It’s not a deep canyon.” Set among rolling hills that give rise to erosion issues, the concrete gravity dam sits on the American River about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento. Built in 1955 by the Corps, the dam is 340 ft high and 1,400 ft long. Folsom Lake provides hydroelectricity and irrigation. “Folsom Lake feeds the American River, which joins the Sacramento River,” says Nelson. “Several weirs run
off into farms. The closest dam from there is north of Redding—the Shasta Dam. There’s not much flood control on the way to Sacramento.” A 1986 storm dumped 10 in. of rain on Sacramento in 11 days, which caused releases of as much as 135,000 cu ft per second of water from Folsom Dam. This flood led to a levee break in Yuba County, flooding dozens of homes (ENR 9/19/95 p. 13). In 1995, a noncatastrophic failure of a gate at Folsom Dam occurred (ENR 7/24/95 p. 9). After years of congressional fights over water bills as well as two failed Corps bids to obtain funding for a new dam, the Corps and the bureau moved ahead with environmental design plans for a new spillway and seismic repairs (ENR 5/14/07 p. 7). The federal entities collaborated with the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA); the bureau contributed about 35% of the funds for the JFP, covering the first two phases that the bureau also managed before handing the baton to the Corps. The Corps funded the rest, with local agencies
TAINTER GATES
Last year, Granite crews installed six bulkhead gates and six Tainter gates (right). Kiewit is now constructing the spillway and chute approaching the control structure (left, center).
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DIAGRAM COURTESY OF USACE
putting in about 35% of that cost, says SAFCA executive director Rick Johnson. SAFCA also helped to jump-start the JFP by administering a $1-million contract that brought in consultants to help with the design—a process that might have taken up to eight months if a federal agency had sponsored it but which took only a month through SAFCA, he adds. Kiewit won a $16-million contract for the first phase, which entailed excavation and construction of a 2-milelong haul road and rehabilitation of the filter systems for the two wing dams, says Todd Orbus, Kiewit area manager. Kiewit also held a $32-million subcontract under local firm Martin Brothers for the $62-million phase-two work, which entailed 2 million cu yd of excavation and two downstream cofferdams. The overall contract also included relocation of a 42-in. water supply pipeline and ancillary access roads, all completed in 2010. Granite Construction won, in 2010, a $125.9- and a 10-ft pool “lip”—all intended to control the flow million contract to install six bulkhead gates, each 106 of floodwater and dissipate its energy. tons, 24 ft wide and 39 ft high, and six 179-ton Tainter Downstream of the control structure, Kiewit gates, each 29 ft wide at the base, with a 45-ft, 3-in. pivot- mobilized an on-site batch plant and multiple crawler ing wedge (ENR 4/7/14 p. 16). Rubber seals in the steel cranes to install 127,000 cu yd of temperatureembeds of each gate are grouted so tightly that “you controlled concrete for the upper chute, stepped chute couldn’t get a knife in between,” says Nelson. The gate and stilling basin, says Luis Paiz, Kiewit project manager. system lies about 50 ft below the main dam. Upstream, crews built a temporary cofferdam with a se“Basically, you can look at it as being a drain plug in a cant pile cut-off wall and excavated the approach channel bathtub,” says Nelson. with blasting and rock bolting, plus installation of 15,000 The Tainter gates are capable of releasing up cu yd of concrete, he adds. to 312,000 cu ft of water a second, enough to fill Most of the excavation took place this year, LOW & SLOW ACROSS more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools. with controlled blasts, sequenced milliseconds AMERICA’S The control structure that houses the bulkhead INFRASTRUCTURE apart, occurring up to three times a week, says and Tainter gates uses 30.6 million lb of steel. The Nelson. The second pile wall consists of about Corps designed the structure in-house, with the 400 overlapping 3.5-ft-dia holes drilled as deep as help of consultants, says Katie Charan, a Corps senior 90 ft into granite and backfilled with concrete. project manager for the fourth-phase new auxiliary spillPaiz notes that, in addition to the logistical way. “Most of the Tainter gates you see are operated with challenge of sharing staging areas with Granite, Kiewit either chain or rope, but this is hydraulic,” she says. had to schedule upstream tasks in conjunction with the When the Corps awarded the contract to Granite, seasonal fluctuations of an active reservoir. The stepped “we didn’t anticipate that Kiewit would come on” during chute reached a 40% grade, and “each step has a unique the duration of that 45-month job, says Charan. When dimension,” he adds. “Blasting, excavation and rockthe federal agencies committed to completing the project bolting in the approach channel was in very close proximin 2017, “we had to create [work] space for Kiewit,” she ity to the existing control structure.” says. “It involved six or seven months of intense land The fifth phase includes a series of small contracts negotiations. We color-coded every area and space.” The for landscaping, commissioning and restoration—“We Corps also added to both contracts a stipulation requiring blew stuff up, and now we have to restore it,” Nelson a dedicated project coordinator. says. That restoration work includes stabilizing the right Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. won, in 2013, the bank of the dam with rock bolts to alleviate erosion. $255.1-million fourth-phase best-value contract to build The massive project comes at a watershed moment. the 1,100-ft approach channel and 3,027-ft spillway and “We’re in a tough time of infrastructure funding … at stilling basin, all of which will slow down the water flow. all levels,” Johnson explains. “We need to maximize The steep spillway features a series of steps, each about what we can out of our existing infrastructure. Folsom 2.5 ft to 3 ft high, concrete baffle blocks at the bottom is an example of that.”
SHUTTING DOWN FLOODS If floodwaters start heading toward Sacramento, they will encounter the progress-hindering gate system.
COVER STORY
INFRASTRUCTURE
enr.com November 2, 2015
ENR11022015cs_Dam_2.indd 33
ENR
33
10/26/15 7:37 PM
enr.com
CONTRACTOR BUSINESS QUARTERLY
(P. CBQ1)
FOLSOM DAM,
FULL ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE | PART 4
Unprecedented partnership among federal agencies speeds crucial $900-million upgrade (P.30)
WATERSHED AGREEMENT
Two federal agencies formed a first-ever $900-million partnership to upgrade Folsom Dam and protect Sacramento from potential floods By Aileen Cho in Folsom, Calif.
INFRASTRUCTURE
30
ENR
I
PHOTOS COURTESY OF USACE
COVER STORY
t may seen ironic at first glance that the region. “Yes, we have periods of drought, but it U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the LOW & SLOW ACROSS could turn over this year and go into a period of flood control for several years.” U.S. Bureau of Land Reclamation are fastAMERICA’S tracking a $900-million effort to INFRASTRUCTURE For years, both federal agencies had been address flood-risk and dam-safety issues at making efforts to protect California’s capital, SacFolsom Dam, located near Sacramento, Calif., amid ramento, which lies in the crosshairs of a potential a headline-making, ongoing drought. But project officials severe flood. In the mid-2000s, planning to strengthen are looking at the long term. the dam for a 200-year-storm event, the bureau consid“Local folks know that what we have is feast or famine ered installing a spillway plug, and the Corps considered with precipitation and the snowpack,” says Drew Lessard, enlarging the gates, to redirect water flows. “For various area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation’s mid-Pacific reasons, we had challenges facing [both] of our missions,
November 2, 2015 enr.com
ENR11022015cs_Dam_2.indd 30
10/26/15 7:37 PM
PHOTO COURTESY OF USACE
so we ended up getting together in 2005 and formulating this joint federal project,” says Lessard. “This is the first time we’ve put resources together.” With six submerged Tainter gates and an auxiliary spillway that will work in conjunction with the existing dam gates, the Joint Federal Project (JFP) addressed both missions while shaving about $500 million from the budget, Lessard estimates. The agencies shortened to 2017 the original 2021 deadline for the JFP in a commitment to Congress, says Sgt. Jeremy Nelson, a Corps quality-assurance representative. “This is the first time the Corps partnered with another federal agency,” he says. The project reflects the ongoing reality of having to pool resources and form new partnerships to get infrastructure missions accomplished—a theme seen consistently throughout ENR’s cross-country “Low & Slow Across America’s Infrastructure” tour, which marked the JFP as its last major construction-site stop. Folsom Fears “Folsom is a unique facility,” says Lessard. “It’s a multipurpose reservoir. It’s not a deep canyon.” Set among rolling hills that give rise to erosion issues, the concrete gravity dam sits on the American River about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento. Built in 1955 by the Corps, the dam is 340 ft high and 1,400 ft long. Folsom Lake provides hydroelectricity and irrigation. “Folsom Lake feeds the American River, which joins the Sacramento River,” says Nelson. “Several weirs run
off into farms. The closest dam from there is north of Redding—the Shasta Dam. There’s not much flood control on the way to Sacramento.” A 1986 storm dumped 10 in. of rain on Sacramento in 11 days, which caused releases of as much as 135,000 cu ft per second of water from Folsom Dam. This flood led to a levee break in Yuba County, flooding dozens of homes (ENR 9/19/95 p. 13). In 1995, a noncatastrophic failure of a gate at Folsom Dam occurred (ENR 7/24/95 p. 9). After years of congressional fights over water bills as well as two failed Corps bids to obtain funding for a new dam, the Corps and the bureau moved ahead with environmental design plans for a new spillway and seismic repairs (ENR 5/14/07 p. 7). The federal entities collaborated with the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA); the bureau contributed about 35% of the funds for the JFP, covering the first two phases that the bureau also managed before handing the baton to the Corps. The Corps funded the rest, with local agencies
TAINTER GATES
Last year, Granite crews installed six bulkhead gates and six Tainter gates (right). Kiewit is now constructing the spillway and chute approaching the control structure (left, center).
enr.com November 2, 2015
ENR11022015cs_Dam_2.indd 31
ENR
31
10/26/15 7:37 PM
DIAGRAM COURTESY OF USACE
putting in about 35% of that cost, says SAFCA executive director Rick Johnson. SAFCA also helped to jump-start the JFP by administering a $1-million contract that brought in consultants to help with the design—a process that might have taken up to eight months if a federal agency had sponsored it but which took only a month through SAFCA, he adds. Kiewit won a $16-million contract for the first phase, which entailed excavation and construction of a 2-milelong haul road and rehabilitation of the filter systems for the two wing dams, says Todd Orbus, Kiewit area manager. Kiewit also held a $32-million subcontract under local firm Martin Brothers for the $62-million phase-two work, which entailed 2 million cu yd of excavation and two downstream cofferdams. The overall contract also included relocation of a 42-in. water supply pipeline and ancillary access roads, all completed in 2010. Granite Construction won, in 2010, a $125.9- and a 10-ft pool “lip”—all intended to control the flow million contract to install six bulkhead gates, each 106 of floodwater and dissipate its energy. tons, 24 ft wide and 39 ft high, and six 179-ton Tainter Downstream of the control structure, Kiewit gates, each 29 ft wide at the base, with a 45-ft, 3-in. pivot- mobilized an on-site batch plant and multiple crawler ing wedge (ENR 4/7/14 p. 16). Rubber seals in the steel cranes to install 127,000 cu yd of temperatureembeds of each gate are grouted so tightly that “you controlled concrete for the upper chute, stepped chute couldn’t get a knife in between,” says Nelson. The gate and stilling basin, says Luis Paiz, Kiewit project manager. system lies about 50 ft below the main dam. Upstream, crews built a temporary cofferdam with a se“Basically, you can look at it as being a drain plug in a cant pile cut-off wall and excavated the approach channel bathtub,” says Nelson. with blasting and rock bolting, plus installation of 15,000 The Tainter gates are capable of releasing up cu yd of concrete, he adds. to 312,000 cu ft of water a second, enough to fill Most of the excavation took place this year, LOW & SLOW ACROSS more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools. with controlled blasts, sequenced milliseconds AMERICA’S The control structure that houses the bulkhead INFRASTRUCTURE apart, occurring up to three times a week, says and Tainter gates uses 30.6 million lb of steel. The Nelson. The second pile wall consists of about Corps designed the structure in-house, with the 400 overlapping 3.5-ft-dia holes drilled as deep as help of consultants, says Katie Charan, a Corps senior 90 ft into granite and backfilled with concrete. project manager for the fourth-phase new auxiliary spillPaiz notes that, in addition to the logistical way. “Most of the Tainter gates you see are operated with challenge of sharing staging areas with Granite, Kiewit either chain or rope, but this is hydraulic,” she says. had to schedule upstream tasks in conjunction with the When the Corps awarded the contract to Granite, seasonal fluctuations of an active reservoir. The stepped “we didn’t anticipate that Kiewit would come on” during chute reached a 40% grade, and “each step has a unique the duration of that 45-month job, says Charan. When dimension,” he adds. “Blasting, excavation and rockthe federal agencies committed to completing the project bolting in the approach channel was in very close proximin 2017, “we had to create [work] space for Kiewit,” she ity to the existing control structure.” says. “It involved six or seven months of intense land The fifth phase includes a series of small contracts negotiations. We color-coded every area and space.” The for landscaping, commissioning and restoration—“We Corps also added to both contracts a stipulation requiring blew stuff up, and now we have to restore it,” Nelson a dedicated project coordinator. says. That restoration work includes stabilizing the right Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. won, in 2013, the bank of the dam with rock bolts to alleviate erosion. $255.1-million fourth-phase best-value contract to build The massive project comes at a watershed moment. the 1,100-ft approach channel and 3,027-ft spillway and “We’re in a tough time of infrastructure funding … at stilling basin, all of which will slow down the water flow. all levels,” Johnson explains. “We need to maximize The steep spillway features a series of steps, each about what we can out of our existing infrastructure. Folsom 2.5 ft to 3 ft high, concrete baffle blocks at the bottom is an example of that.”
SHUTTING DOWN FLOODS If floodwaters start heading toward Sacramento, they will encounter the progress-hindering gate system.
COVER STORY
INFRASTRUCTURE
enr.com November 2, 2015
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