The American Society of Civil Engineers California Region recognized the Folsom Dam auxiliary spillway project as the state’s Outstanding Water Project for 2016 at an awards ceremony held in Los Angeles last month.
The honor specifically highlights construction of the auxiliary spillway’s control structure. The structure, basically a second dam, will complement the functions of Folsom’s existing dam by allowing water to be released earlier and more safely from the reservoir during a high water event.
The project was one of 20 from throughout California to be recognized for innovative methods and use of technology leading to improvements in the field of engineering, and for the auxiliary spillway control structure specifically, leading to improvements in flood protection.
The control structure was the third of the project’s five phases, which also included two phases of excavation, construction of the downstream chute and upstream approach channel, and site restoration.
In addition to recognizing the project, ASCE also acknowledged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District as owner and engineer of the project and Granite Construction Company as the construction contractor.
“We’re extremely proud of our collaboration with Granite Construction and all of our partners throughout the life of this project,” said Rick Poeppelman, chief of the Sacramento District’s Engineering Division and the Engineer of Record for the project. “We came up with the engineering design, but without someone to construct your design, you have nothing. There is no way the Corps could have done this alone.”
Poeppelman said the auxiliary spillway project has been a collaborative success between numerous engineering resources, including many from throughout the Corps, other federal agencies such as the Bureau of Reclamation, state and local agencies, and a host of contractors.
Slated for completion in October, the auxiliary spillway project is designed to help meet California’s 200-year flood risk reduction goal for the approximately 2.5 million people in the Sacramento Metropolitan Area.