Over 130,000 urged to evacuate as california dam could fail

shel90 said:
Same thing with the New Orleans levee breaches. Before Katrina, enginneers warned the government officials that a big storm could cause the breach in them but werent taken seriously (if I remember correctly) and look what happened.
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The levies didn't actually cause the flooding, it was pump failures in New Orleans as it is below sea level, if the pumps would have been maintained properly they wouldn't have shut down even with the levies breached they would have stayed at a minimal flood damage.
 
Plugging the hole with boulders? Talk about a temporary fix.
 
Update photos:

The California Department of Water Resources continues to examine and repair the erosion with more than 125 construction crews working around the clock, and placing 1,200 tons of material on the spillway per hour using helicopters and heavy construction equipment at the Butte County site. Photo taken February 18, 2017. (Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources)

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More photos and stories here: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02...hotos-show-damage-to-dams-emergency-spillway/
 
I was watching a live feed, it does not look like there will be enough concrete in the state to fix that, Those trucks are so tiny for the ground they are attempting to cover.
 
Sares said:
I was watching a live feed, it does not look like there will be enough concrete in the state to fix that, Those trucks are so tiny for the ground they are attempting to cover.
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Those damn boulders. I am no engineer but they scream Bad Idea. Heck, a sneeze would probably cause something they don't anticipate, let alone a tremor.
 
I really did not think about the trimmers, good point, and even possibility of major earth quakes. Might have been a better idea to use a re-enforced rubber
 
Hah. Does it have to be re-inforced? I mean, why not burn the biggest pile of tires and let it seal it? We could make it a national celebration, with prizes given to those who could deal with the smoke?
All kidding aside, welcome.
Don't be afraid of us, we are nuts and revel in the fact. :)
 
If burning would only work, burning would change the chemical bond, it would need to be melted, but your idea of using old tires would be perfect , two problems solved at the same time.
 
Calvin said:
Recent photos:

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More photos here: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/artic...cale-of-damage-to-10966777.php#photo-12459087
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Perhaps when they rebuild the spillway they should make it wider and curve it the way the water seems to want to go and that seems to the right! What's left of the spillway kind of looks like the roads in CA right now! It's amazing how quickly something like this happens when you delay maintenance on infrastructure like dams and roads like CA has done over the last 10 years. You can pay a little in the beginning or pay a whole lot more if you let it degrade to this level.
 
Why not make it a tube like the glory hole? something flat sitting on soil is bound to fail on a steep incline like that anyways....
Make it a tube and bury it with an opening at the river. put one on each side that will be plenty to support the overflow added with the one already in place.
 
Sares said:
I really did not think about the trimmers, good point, and even possibility of major earth quakes. Might have been a better idea to use a re-enforced rubber
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still only a 99.9% chance to protect it.
 
sonocativo said:
Why not make it a tube like the glory hole? something flat sitting on soil is bound to fail on a steep incline like that anyways....
Make it a tube and bury it with an opening at the river. put one on each side that will be plenty to support the overflow added with the one already in place.
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Lake Berryessa in CA has a glory hole that does just that. However, in the states hindsight to not put one in at Oroville in the past or in the drought years, they would have to drain the lake to do it now. San louis reservoir near Los Banos is being earthquake retrofit right now and they have to keep the water below a certain level until the work is completed, and who knows when that will happen. You just wonder where these engineers got there education from that they can't get these things right in the first place. They just released a report on the amount of money it will take to fix the dams, bridges and roads in CA and it tops $50 billion, so to use the government calculator, double or triple that figure and you will probably be near the correct amount.
 
seb said:
Lake Berryessa in CA has a glory hole that does just that. However, in the states hindsight to not put one in at Oroville in the past or in the drought years, they would have to drain the lake to do it now. San louis reservoir near Los Banos is being earthquake retrofit right now and they have to keep the water below a certain level until the work is completed, and who knows when that will happen. You just wonder where these engineers got there education from that they can't get these things right in the first place. They just released a report on the amount of money it will take to fix the dams, bridges and roads in CA and it tops $50 billion, so to use the government calculator, double or triple that figure and you will probably be near the correct amount.
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I believe part of that comes from what has been learned since these dams were constructed. Think of how long ago that was and the fact that knowledge is constantly changing!
 
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