Engineers use replica to pinpoint California dam repairs
LOGAN, Utah — Inside a cavernous northern Utah warehouse, hydraulic engineers send water rushing down a replica of a dam built out of wood, concrete and steel — trying to pinpoint what repairs will work best at the tallest dam in the U.S for a spillway torn apart in February during heavy rains that triggered the evacuation of 200,000 people living downstream.
The sound of rushing water is deafening as Utah State University hydraulics engineering professor Michael Johnson kneels in front of the Oroville Dam replica the size of a small house to examine one of two channels that run the width of the spillway to allow air into the water to prevent bubble formations that can damage the concrete spillway of the real dam.
The new channels, called aerators, are one of the key features in the proposed $300 million spillway reconstruction set to be completed by November — when winter rains and snow will once again increase the flow of water into the lake above the dam.
While a separate team of dam experts tries to solve the mystery of why the spillway crumbled last February, the hydrologists who built the replica are using it to guide California authorities on how they should build a new spillway so that it can withstand rushing waters.