PID BOARD APPROVES MAGALIA DAM STUDY
Paradise Irrigation District board of directors recently unanimously approved the proposal from Slate Geotechnical Consultant Inc. to do an engineering study on the Magalia Dam.
The bid by Slate beat out Genterra Consultants Inc.
Colleen Boak of Waterworks Engineers told the board that both companies that applied for the job were very good, however Slate’s bid was half the cost of Genterra.
The engineering study by Slate will cost about $395,319 while Genterra’s bid came at $809,067.
In the end, Boak said that along with the cost that Slate’s proposal was the best fit in meeting the goals in the district.
According to the agenda, the project’s goal is to develop a simple and resilient solution to mitigate the potential for seismic deformations of the dam during the design earthquake event. The project is being funded by a Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Mitigation Grant and PID is committed to having a “shovel-ready” project in 36 months with a total design cost of no more than $1.6 million.
Once 30 percent of the plans has been developed along with specifications and cost estimates, PID will evaluate if the proposed solution can be developed to a shovel ready project with the remaining time and budget from the grant.
According to the agenda, Slate’s focus will be to develop simple retrofit measures that can be designed and shovel-ready within 36 months.
Once the study is done, PID will next have to approve the planning and the full design of the selected alternative under a separate and subsequent contract.
The water district should be presented with the study by June.
Since 1996, the state Division of Safety of Dams has required the lake to be drawn down to 2,200 feet above sea level, 25.8 feet below the dam’s designed capacity and spillway.
The PID says that together, these projects will support addressing concerns over the reliability and seismic stability of Magalia Dam, which has resulted in limited operational storage volumes within the reservoir.