Creative Dam Removal Based On Site's Unique Topography

摘要

California's largest-ever dam removal project will take advantage of the area's unique topography to allow builders to divert permanently the Carmel River into a new channel. Built in 1921 about 18.5 miles upstream of the Pacific Ocean in Monterey County, the 106-ft-tall San Clemente Dam is filled with 2.5 million cu yards of sediment. It is at risk of failure during an earthquake or probable maximum flood. Under a $61-million design-build contract, crews with Granite Construction, Watsonville, will cut a 400-ft-long diversion channel through a small ridge that separates the Carmel River and the San Clemente Creek tributary a half mile above the dam.