As Outstanding Engineering Project of the Year
San Diego, California – The San Diego Engineering Council honored the San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), the Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD), and its project team with the ‘2004 Outstanding Engineering Project’ award for the Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir as part of its annual awards for National Engineer’s Week.
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 Parsons, Inc., the project required the placement of more than 1.4 million cubic yards of roller-compacted concrete. The dam was completed in August 2003 and should be filled by summer 2004, providing the Water Authority with over 18,000-acre feet of new reservoir storage and OMWD with 3,600-acre feet of water for its operational needs.
The Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir is a critical part of the Water Authority’s $827 million, 10-year Emergency Storage Project, 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.
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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.
