Morena Dam Spillway Near-Term Repair
Owner: City of San Diego
Project Name: Morena Dam Spillway Near-Term Repair
Location : Morena Reservoir Dam, Campo, CA
Designer: Kleinfelder
Contractor: Orion Construction Corporation
Delivery Model: Design-Bid-Build
Contract Value: $3,532,687
Schedule: August 2024 – December 2024
Scope: This project brought the City of San Diego into compliance with California DSOD requirements for repair of deficient concrete spillways. It included concrete repairs to the upstream and downstream ogee spillway walls, and the downstream side of the left retaining wall, and boulder removal at the Morena Dam. The project repaired all degraded concrete, spalls, and boulder-impact areas on the spillway channel floor and walls. Repairs included about 310 cubic feet of spall repairs using cementitious high-strength mortar, 2800 lineal feet of structural crack repairs by injection of high-strength epoxy resin, and 180 cubic feet of hole patching. The project also included the removal of non-native vegetation growing adjacent to the spillway chute.
Challenges: The project is in a remote area of East San Diego County, on the City of San Diego-owned reservoir property. We graded the dirt road, cleared vegetation, and installed steel plates to bridge drainage swales, making the road passable for our heavy vehicles and equipment. Safety was a paramount concern due to the size of the boulders and unstable hillsides where construction took place. Since access was limited, we used a crane to lower the equipment into the spillway and set up scaffolding for man access to the lower areas.
Results: This project was constructed with in-house labor trained by a Sika Corporation technical representative as certified applicators of Sika repair mortars and epoxy grouts, and Solid structures for concrete repairs. 12,000 hours of work were completed with zero reportable incidents. The repairs performed by our company enabled the City of San Diego to comply with the California Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) spillway reevaluation program, maintaining the integrity and functionality of the spillway and ensuring the continued viability and regulatory compliance of the Morena Dam spillway.
