All members and non-members are welcome!  This will be a great opportunity to meet other young civil engineers in the Sacramento community and to learn about the different institutes of the ASCE Sacramento Section.  RSVP is not required.

This month's presentation will be provided by PATRICK C. DELL, GE, Sr. Project Manager of Neil O. Anderson & Associates; a firm that specializes in geotechnical engineering and environmental consulting.  Mr. Dell is based in their Lodi office and is part of the Kleinfelder team performing evaluations of levees from Lodi to Fresno. 

DWR Levee Evaluation Program and Levee Assessment Tool

The State of California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) has undertaken an evaluation of the urban and non-urban levees within the Central Valley of California.  These programs are being funded by voter-approved bond measures passed in 2007.  These programs are part of DWR’s FloodSafe program to improve the levees within central California.  DWR has contracted with two private consulting engineering firms to assist them in these evaluations.  The program will include a brief presentation about these two programs.

In addition, as part of the DWR’s Non-Urban Levee Evaluation (NULE) Project for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers flood control systems a team from URS, Kleinfelder/NOA, and DWR was tasked with developing a procedure for performing a preliminary geotechnical evaluation of the approximately 1600 miles of levees that protect non-urban (rural) areas in California’s Central Valley.  As part of the evaluation process, the team developed a levee assessment tool.  This tool is an Excel spreadsheet that is used to evaluate five levee failure modes: underseepage, through seepage, stability, overtopping, and erosion.  Key indicators, such as levee geometry, geomorphology, geology, generalized soil conditions, etc. are used to help evaluate each levee segment.  This tool enables experienced engineers and geologists to perform standardized preliminary assessments of levees.  Results of this assessment are used to strategize subsequent phases of the overall evaluation.  Past performance is used to verify or modify conclusions.  No field explorations were performed as part of this tool.  Field explorations will be performed as part of subsequent studies.  Historical data, past performance, levee geometry, geomorphology, geology, and generalized soil conditions were documented and included in a GIS database.  Data included in the GIS database is used in the evaluation tool.