Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Oroville Spillway Fiasco As Predicted

 

The $500 million and counting Spillway repair has hairline cracks before even entirely set.  The contractor says that's normal for high strength reinforced concrete.  No, it is not.  It's normal for driveways and patios.  Cracks of any type are unacceptable as they allow water to get to the steel.  They also suggest a suseptability to spalling. 

Full story at The ChicoER.

42 comments:

dilbert dogbert said...

Here is some light reading from Prof Google:
https://www.google.com/search?q=micro+and+macro+cracks+in+concrete&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
Enjoy!

Rob Dawg said...

I have never met an expert in concrete. The man I did meet that everyone else would consider THE expert said he didn't know how much he didn't know about concrete. We've made huge advances in the past decades and are getting closer to knowing how much we don't know. As an engineer the stuff fascinates me. Sets in days, hardens in years, drys in decades. Drys even underwater. Awesome compressive strength, poor tensile and nonexistent bending.

I expect to be reporting on the use of concrete for "printed" houses in the coming years.

Lawyerliz said...

Make these people live down stream.

Rob Dawg said...

Liz had the right idea. Unfortunately these kinds of malpractice take decades to manifest.

Rob Dawg said...

Anyone willing to guess at he final price tag?

LBD said...

Less bribes?

LBD said...

I have followed Bloncolirio on YouTube through this whole process and have been amazed at how fast the whole repair has been. Cracks, water and metal don't sound good to me either. They still have the temporary part to redo, will it suffer from the same problem and can it be fixed with grinding and grout? Cost on a job like this is guessing how much discovery with R&D will it take. IMO

Rob Dawg said...

I would have commissioned a new spillway away from the old failed. Far west or Far East a matter of the survey. A half billion dollars is just so much money. And the price keeps rising. There is never enough money or time to do it right by always enough to do it over.

Cinco-X said...

The concrete used to make the Hoover Dam was pretty amazing. If they'd used conventional concrete and techniques, that dam would probably still be curing

LBD said...

So there is a chance this is like Chinese drywall.

Lawyerliz said...

Hehe. Sorta.

Lawyerliz said...

Chinese drywall make people really sock. I knew some.

Lawyerliz said...

Makes Sick

Lawyerliz said...

Good another fake normal

Rob Dawg said...

Chinese drywall is/was an export of toxic material. An example of long policy.

dilbert dogbert said...

Note: the rebar used is coated with epoxy, the same stuff Kali uses for bridge decking on hwy 80 to prevent corrosion from the salt used to prevent ice. The Donner Lake offramp bridge supports had to be repaired due to corrosion from the salt. What I saw was spalling of the outer layers of concrete. They closed the ramps so I could not see what techniques were used. I expect they tried to protect the supports by diverting the salty runoff from the deck.
Re: Hoover
Hoover is a "gravity" dam - no rebar. It has lots of cracks. Not thin arch construction.

Lawyerliz said...

I don't understand how.is it supposed to be built.

Lawyerliz said...

Garrison Keillor?? Garrison keillor?? I am speechless.

Rob Dawg said...

Everyone is below average?

Lawyerliz said...

Sighh. I guess so.

Lawyerliz said...

Maybe it will be Pat Sajak next.

Lawyerliz said...

He hugs those winners. They hug him too.

Lawyerliz said...

Fire them all!

Lawyerliz said...

I'd much rather talk about rebar and tie beams. Weeds. Expensive and cheap houses. B of A being destroyed.
What condition Puerto Rico is in? Even North Korea. Or conclude all men are scum and leave it like that.

Lawyerliz said...

What will November's unemployment be? Is 3.9 full employment. What to do about ugly men?

Rob Dawg said...

We all eventually come around to good house practices but that road passes through the dark forests of finance and all those evils.

LBD said...

https://imgur.com/a/YfMWL

Hope this worked, the piece was intended for the outdoors but needed contrast to see it. In the office it went.

LBD said...

Maybe the answer is to hire fat ugly woman that no man would touch.

Rob Dawg said...

Pretty persons will complain that they are being passed over.

Rob Dawg said...

Nice weathervane.

Lawyerliz said...

Now the Trumplet is having a twitter fight with May. She should ignore him.

Lawyerliz said...

They already hired a lot of fat ugly men. Maybe they should fire all those

Lawyerliz said...

The obese, very competent women I've known had a hard time getting a job.

Lawyerliz said...

Next thing you'll see is the pretties will be forced to wear a burnoose, and short skits and football cheerleaders will be forbidden.

Lawyerliz said...

In 2008, Rob posted a picture with a lady with her bare bottom stI king our labeled Spank that bottom puportedly about house prices going down. Rob should fire himself. What is that bottom thing anyway. Came across it randomly. I did not know Serin posted on your blog.

Lawyerliz said...

Sticking out. There was also an imjut pic of a roller derby girl with a rooster tail sticking out of her ass.

Lawyerliz said...

A weathervane.

Rob Dawg said...

Tempted to excuse my bad pun titles and racy pictures as being “tongue in cheek” but that too would be misconstrued. Gotta be careful these days.

Rob Dawg said...

New post.

LBD said...

Good Morning!

It started as a weather vane left over from a wind generator experiment. The tip and tale are fence wire rolled in circles cut and welded. Color is hard to see but it is heat marking from a torch. I will keep learning so feel free to kick me around.

Problem is eye candy sells, especially women and we all know if there is smoke there's fire wanted or not. Stopping these people is the responsibility of the first victim not a dozen later for money or political purposes. IMO

Lawyerliz said...

Why? Why not the 2nd 3rd or 10th?

LBD said...

Not keeping people in check allows easy repeat of bad behavior and allows it to become more aggressive, more victims. Politics = money.