Project to raise dam 117 feet

PASADENA, CALF.—A joint-venture of Parsons and Black & Veatch was selected to provide design and constructability reviews and overall construction management on the San Vicente Dam Raise project. The project will help ensure water availability for the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) and its constituents.

San Vicente Dam, a concrete gravity dam completed in 1943, stands 220 feet tall and provides a water storage capacity of 90,000 acre-feet. The dam will be raised 117 feet, which will provide an additional 152,000 acre-feet of water storage capacity, consisting of both emergency and carryover water. The new dam will be built on top of the existing dam using roller-compacted concrete and will be built to remain operational in the event of a major earthquake. The project will increase the San Vicente Reservoir storage capacity to 242,000 acre-feet.

"The Parsons/Black & Veatch team is excited to be working with the San Diego County Water Authority on this important project," said Rich Wankmuller, Parsons group president. "The dam raise is part of the county’s Emergency Storage Project, which aims to provide a sustainable and reliable water supply to the region in the event of an interruption to imported water."

The Parsons/Black & Veatch team has worked on dam projects worldwide, including projects such as the Long Tan Hydropower project in China and the two largest dams constructed in Southern California in the last 20 years, Diamond Valley Lake Dam and Olivenhain Dam. The team also has extensive experience with other aspects of the Emergency Storage Project, including work on the state-of-the-art pump station, which will help move water from the San Vicente Reservoir to one of SDCWA’s aqueducts. The project is expected to meet the county’s emergency storage needs through 2030.

Design work on the dam raise project will continue through the end of 2009, with construction scheduled from 2009 to 2012.