Big Boys Hobbies

Officials warn of “imminent failure” at Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway

Bespride

Bespride

Full Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
135
Location
Morristown TN
 
Last edited:
Interesting article, but it refers to the "cement spillway" One of my pet peeves, it's *concrete*, people.
 
I don't see the big emergency. The spillway has broke and they have to continue to drain water because of ice melt? Okay....yeah fish are going to die because they get stuck and can't make it to the river below. Can't shut the spillway for repair because too much ice melt will overflow. Sucks to be a fish right now, but I'm sure they'll have the chance to fix it soon.
 
Here's a most recent I could find with the espillway active.

C4beV7iWMAE4DVK.jpg
 
No,,,this story reflects bad engineering in my book.

Even seen some earthen dams around in my area,,,in 2009 May,,,had some big problems.

I even saw a bridge just recently,,,that was repaired,,,,it too was badly engineered. Just some steel or aluminum placed in the right place would have saved some big bucks here on this bridge.

Another bridge,,near me as of late,,,not too old mind you,,,had to be repaired. One of the causes,,was they upon initial construction,,,didn't place any drains on the bridge,,hence the water seepage,,,along with road salt,,,ate it away.
Guess what the new bridge has now???
Duh!!

Seems the ground beneath this spillway was not reinforced or really even explored. And most likely until now,,,maybe never been really tested.
And due to the size of this dam,,and the volume of water involved,,,,why didn't he knuckleheads have 2 concrete reinforced steel spillways for flooding????
Primary and alternate.
Must always have a great back up plan,,,when you are dealing with so much pressure,,,weight,,,and importance of protecting the dam structure itself.
 
That dont look good at all...Big snow melt in the High Sierras, and we hear theres inbound rain on the way? Is this right? Give us an update when you can..Thank you...

Like TnSharp was saying...Very old infrastructure out there all over the Country, like in the TVA...very old dams built long ago all down that drainage......built without modern machinery even, ...talk about 1000's of 'shovel ready jobs' back then...Unbelievable they have lasted this long...
 
That dont look good at all...Big snow melt in the High Sierras, and we hear theres inbound rain on the way? Is this right? Give us an update when you can..Thank you...

Like TnSharp was saying...Very old infrastructure out there all over the Country, like in the TVA...very old dams built long ago all down that drainage......built without modern machinery even, ...talk about 1000's of 'shovel ready jobs' back then...Unbelievable they have lasted this long...
 
Last edited:
Mud-puppy said:
Oroville is the '19th largest Dam in the World'...built from 1960's mine spoils....that puts some perspective on this...Thanks for that vid and feedback..Yeah...If I was downstream, I'd be skedaddling or eventually paddling...
Click to expand...
Yeah, my wife has extended family in Yuba City and Marysville that were packing when we called them after I saw the evac order.

My opinion is with the extensive damage to the main spillway they wanted to cut back the flow so the erosion wouldn't eat back fill to the gates. So they tested the emergency spillway to assess how It would hold up and now they have an answer.
Now their only option is the main spillway until repairs can be done. It doesn't look good.
 
Man, we hope this gets fixed before the obvious catastrophe happens!

At least the right people are working on the problem. :yes:

Looks like this dam built in the later 1960's.

Looking back, I'll bet almost every start has a story about dam breaks and disaster.

Good luck to all you CA folks!
 
You can see what they were concerned about now with these repairs.
C4lZm_jVYAAm4UQ.jpg


Bedrock looks like its crumbling.

C4kGF1nUMAEWmrh.jpg:large


The hole on the left by the parking lot looks bad too.

XaQEUiz.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

HungryGhost
Restoring old cast iron cookware
Replies
4
Views
125
HungryGhost
HungryGhost
metaladdict
Lottery?
Replies
16
Views
293
markinmichigan
markinmichigan
mudwhale
Eclipse 2024!
Replies
9
Views
208
KingTotsalot
KingTotsalot
bergie
Waterfalls behind an old mill
Replies
5
Views
121
bergie
bergie
metaladdict
Coinstar...
Replies
3
Views
113
GroundSweeper
GroundSweeper
Back
Top Bottom