San Diego, California – The American Public Works Association (APWA), San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter, selected the Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir Project for its 2004 Project of the Year Award in the Environmental Category, for projects over $10 million.
Constructed for the San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority) and the Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD), this unique and innovative project includes a 318-foot tall, roller-compacted concrete (RCC) dam, the tallest dam of its kind in the nation and the first RCC dam in California. The Olivenhain Dam is the first major dam built in San Diego County in the last 50 years. Designed by the joint venture team of MWH and Ralph M. Parsons, Inc., the project required the placement of more than 1.4 million cubic yards of RCC. The new dam was inaugurated in September 2003 and reservoir filling should be completed by September 2004, providing the Water Authority and OMWD with more than 24,000 acre-feet of new reservoir storage.
The Olivenhain Dam has many unique design features that have been influenced by the design engineer’s optimization of the dam for seismic performance in keeping with the dam’s overall function to support emergency water supply operations. Optimization of the dam addressed several areas, including foundation shaping, structural enhancements, and operational equipment strengthening.
The Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir is a critical part of the Water Authority’s $827 million, 10-year Emergency Storage Project (ESP), an effort to increase the amount of water available within the county for use during emergencies, such as a drought or major earthquake. Overall, it will add approximately 90,000 acre-feet of additional reservoir storage in San Diego and expand the existing transmission and distribution capabilities, thus providing a six-month supply of water in case of emergency or natural disaster.
By developing the ESP, the Water Authority has made several significant achievements to the industry in planning, permitting and financing a water resources project in the United States. These accomplishments include:
projection planning of an emergency water shortfall,
development of a quantitative decision model for screening and ranking project alternatives,
implementation of an innovative and open communications approach to allow the general public and various interest groups to participate directly in the project decision-making process, and
development of an improved funding mechanism for the implementing agency.
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About MWH
Headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., MWH is a private, employee-owned firm with approximately 6,000 employees worldwide. The company provides water, wastewater, energy, natural resource, program management, consulting and construction services to industrial, municipal and government clients in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, India, Asia and the Pacific Rim. For more information about MWH, please visit the company’s Web site at www.mwhglobal.com.
