Roller Compacted Concrete, Freeman Diversion, Phase 2

In the extremely hot temperatures of Southern California, water supply can be a difficulty for some communities. The Freeman Diversion Improvement Project was designed to improve the existing dam to ‘divert’ water to injection ponds for the recharge of aquifer, provide a fish ladder for migratory fish, and during high water flows, the design allowed the river to breech the structure. The trash rack assembly, fish screens, and flushing systems are first time unique construction items. The trash rack is a mechanized assembly that automatically starts when the pressure drop between two transducers exceeds an allowable amount. The fish screens were designed to keep fish from entering the recharging ponds and divert them to the fish diversion channel. As the river contains a high sediment content, which was expected to clog the system, an automatic system ‘flush’ would occur by a series of alternating gates. The project was completed three months ahead of schedule. Just after the structure was turned over to the owner, several storms hit the area. It has been estimated that the early completed Diversion Structure diverted 25-50% more storm runoff than previous operations. This runoff waster was diverted for human usage rather than lost in the ocean.