SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Two more giant gates for the new auxiliary spillway at Folsom Dam are scheduled to complete the 600-mile journey from Vancouver, Wash., to Folsom this month with the first one scheduled to arrive early in the morning Saturday, May 10.
A second delivery this month is scheduled to arrive early in the morning on May 17.
The May deliveries will be the second and third of 12 gates to be delivered to the construction site after the first gate arrived late at night on March 13. One difference this time around is that the gates being delivered are Tainter gates, which means they are slightly longer than the first gate and have a curved face. Overall, each Tainter gate is shipped disassembled in three parts with the arms and hub coming on separate truckloads.
Transported by a 140-foot-long tractor/trailer truck and highway patrol escort, the gates will travel down Interstate 5, mostly at night, from the Oregon Iron Works facility in Vancouver. While it will travel at typical highway speeds, the load width will block both lanes of southbound traffic. The truck will drive at a reduced speed through a construction area near Yreka and over the Yolo Bypass as it enters Sacramento. Once the truck exits the highway, rolling street closures will be implemented, with affected intersections blocked only long enough for the truck to pass. Deliveries will have minimal impact on oncoming traffic.
The remaining nine gates will be delivered over the new few months, and installation is expected to begin this summer. Overall, the auxiliary spillway is scheduled for completion in October 2017.
The auxiliary spillway project is part of the Joint Federal Project, a $900-million cooperative effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood Protection Board, California Department of Water Resources and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency to improve the safety of Folsom Dam and reduce flood risk for the Sacramento area.
Gate delivery details:
Dates:
May 10, 2014/May 17, 2014
TIME:
Gate arrival in Folsom scheduled between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Gate scheduled to be traveling through Sacramento between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on May 9 and 16