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Oroville was actually rebuilt and held up nicely in recent atmospheric rivers. Same with the South Bay dams that caused the San Jose flooding in 2017. I would

Oroville was actually rebuilt and held up nicely in recent atmospheric rivers. Same with the South Bay dams that caused the San Jose flooding in 2017. I wouldn't use those as examples - if anything, they are examples of how California actually can build infrastructure, quickly and reliably, when there is profound media embarrassment and multi-million-dollar lawsuits at stake. The infrastructure you have to worry about is the stuff that everybody's forgotten about, eg. the levee and dam systems in the Delta.

olliej 4y ago
What? Oriville dam is infrastructure that was forgotten about. We only know about it in any immediate sense now because it collapsed due to the failure to maintain it. Which was my point. Seriously, any “cost cutting” measures that “defer” maintenance of infrastructure should be required to put aside funds to rebuild that infrastructure.
- nostrademons 4y ago
  Oroville dam did not collapse. The main spillway developed a large crater in it that put it out of operation, and there was serious worry about the emergency spillway collapsing, but the dam itself was never in any serious danger of collapsing. (If it had, you would've heard about it. The impact of the emergency spillway collapsing would've been a 30 foot wall of water going down the Feather River; the impact of the dam itself collapsing would've been a 700 foot wall of water going down the Feather River.) Both the emergency and main spillways were fully repaired in 2018, and the repairs have held up nicely in subsequent rainstorms. You probably didn't hear about the repairs because the media never reports on stuff that goes as planned. There are several case studies about it on civil engineering blogs & channels though: https://practical.engineering/blog/2021/12/20/rebuilding-the-oroville-dam-spillways https://practical.engineering/blog/2021/12/20/rebuilding-the...

olliej 4y ago

What? Oriville dam is infrastructure that was forgotten about. We only know about it in any immediate sense now because it collapsed due to the failure to maintain it. Which was my point. Seriously, any “cost cutting” measures that “defer” maintenance of infrastructure should be required to put aside funds to rebuild that infrastructure.

nostrademons 4y ago
Oroville dam did not collapse. The main spillway developed a large crater in it that put it out of operation, and there was serious worry about the emergency spillway collapsing, but the dam itself was never in any serious danger of collapsing. (If it had, you would've heard about it. The impact of the emergency spillway collapsing would've been a 30 foot wall of water going down the Feather River; the impact of the dam itself collapsing would've been a 700 foot wall of water going down the Feather River.) Both the emergency and main spillways were fully repaired in 2018, and the repairs have held up nicely in subsequent rainstorms. You probably didn't hear about the repairs because the media never reports on stuff that goes as planned. There are several case studies about it on civil engineering blogs & channels though: https://practical.engineering/blog/2021/12/20/rebuilding-the-oroville-dam-spillways https://practical.engineering/blog/2021/12/20/rebuilding-the...