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Oroville Spillway Repairs

fast_st

Senior Member
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Dec 1, 2010
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1,468
Location
Mass
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IT systems admin
Well true, looks like a high pressure fire hose arrangement, though the unrestricted flow of water carved out Croyle canyon in a hurry
Thanks again!
 

DMiller

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Feb 21, 2010
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Hermann, Missouri
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Cheap "old" Geezer
Appears they are dealing with a great deal of 'Rotten' rock; Too soft for the necessary base but strong enough to be in the way. Also appears they are using a material we call 'Flowable Fill' and or 'shotcrete' here which in a proper form can be excavated yet retains the strength of concrete when solidified.

Still looks to be a mess to recover.
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
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5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I don't believe they are using flowable fill or any low strength product.

My impressions are: first they are blasting everything down to bare solid rock.

Then if necessary they consolidate cracks and such with "dental concrete" which they explain in the last video, it is high strength but flows in but only in small volumes.

Then for the huge lifts of the eroded areas they are using roller compacted concrete which is very dry and has no rebar but is placed by dump trucks and dozers and rollers.

In some places they use leveling concrete where they don't need such a lift I guess.

Finally they place structural concrete with rebar and drains and walls and such for the final structure much of which will be done next year. But some is going down now. It has a special erosion resistant finish.

They have made kind of a temporary chute with walls and such in some areas out of RCC but no rebar or drains or any features which will have to be demo'ed next spring for the proper placement but it is something to get by over this winter.

The plan is if it has to be used this winter some of the work will be destroyed but most years it never gets used and I am sure they will take extra care this winter to avoid using it if at all humanly possible.
 

fast_st

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Mass
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RCC going over 100 feet deep in a few weeks, that RCC must be some dandy stuff!! Birken, sounds like you live pretty close to Juan, maybe do a guest appearance!
 

DARO

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2014
Messages
178
Location
Duluth MN USA
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Mechanic
Wunder what its like working on those dozers, rollers after they been pounding on concrete.. or do they ues a release agent on then?
 

DMiller

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Feb 21, 2010
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Hermann, Missouri
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Cheap "old" Geezer
Goes up in shallow lifts where each layer is compacted to the last, almost dry and compressible. Still generates heat needs some moisture to start the process, has plusses and minuses. Effective if done right worthless if done wrong.
 

DMiller

Senior Member
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Feb 21, 2010
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Hermann, Missouri
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Cheap "old" Geezer
Problem is its still concrete and as hard as they try will still environmentally crack or shrink and pull at expansion seams. Best laid plans may sound good and cost a lot but longevity is the key, will it last?
 

John Shipp

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Mar 5, 2015
Messages
641
Location
England
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forestry contracting
It's probably not a bad thing that they don't have time in one season to finish the rcc with the structural concrete, that they get a chance to remove the top layer and have another go next year. 100ft of concrete placed continuously, I can't imagine the heat and expansion it will be going through, then cooling down later and contracting. Think the going back again approach is a blessing.
 

old-iron-habit

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Nov 22, 2012
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Moose Lake, MN
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Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
In the video the narrator said they were applying RCC shotcreke on the wall. I wonder if he mis-spoke on that. We have shot shotcreke for years that had structural strength of up to 5,000 PSI concrete. What they were spraying in the video on post 134 looked like standard shotcrete and did not look like a water added product like RCC. I stand to be corrected.
 

John Shipp

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Mar 5, 2015
Messages
641
Location
England
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forestry contracting
Sounded like he said "here's the scaffolding on the the RCC walls, they're spraying shotcrete on wire mesh...." Etc etc

A lot of good work going into a wall they may not use, and which is being pulled out to put drains in later; really impressive work especially with all the camera action watching every move.
 
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