i do not get it?? why close it? there is more rain coming this next week. and with the oroville dam about to fail. might need this to be reopened in an emg setting.
Essentially. The Sac Weir exists divert water from going downstream of the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. You only need to do that when there is just too much water coming, and upstream flood control systems like the Folsom Dam are at their limits. Using the bypass means that some farm and park lands will be flooded and damaged, but the city of Sacramento won’t be. It’s a trade off, and like any compromise there’s some give and take.
The short answer is that this isn’t done super often - only once ever few years, maybe even only once a decade. As such, the cost to install a fully automated system and maintain it, vs. a manual gate system that works just as well and is far less demanding to maintain just doesn’t pencil out. Yeah, you pay more in labor when opening or closing the Weir, but the overall costs are just so much lower and it works just as well. In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers is widening the Weir right now so more water can flow through it….and doing so using the exact same setup as the original 1916 design. It works great, why fix it?
Beautiful work by our great, great grandfathers.
Wow pretty cool thanks for sharing amazing how this thing works
Really cool!!! Glad you shared this machinery that controls that whitecaps ocean last week 😁
its 2017, but the gates work like an 1800's pasture gate with wire and rusty metal
+Hal Johnson. this is what happens when communists run a government
i do not get it??
why close it?
there is more rain coming this next week. and with the oroville dam about to fail. might need this to be reopened in an emg setting.
I guess the water levels weren't high enough, so close the gates?
Essentially. The Sac Weir exists divert water from going downstream of the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. You only need to do that when there is just too much water coming, and upstream flood control systems like the Folsom Dam are at their limits. Using the bypass means that some farm and park lands will be flooded and damaged, but the city of Sacramento won’t be. It’s a trade off, and like any compromise there’s some give and take.
Surprised that all of that had to be done manually. Why not use control gates like those on a modern dam?
+Robert Glennie. because the communists in the state govt would rather spend money on importing illegal aliens than build new infrastructure
The short answer is that this isn’t done super often - only once ever few years, maybe even only once a decade. As such, the cost to install a fully automated system and maintain it, vs. a manual gate system that works just as well and is far less demanding to maintain just doesn’t pencil out. Yeah, you pay more in labor when opening or closing the Weir, but the overall costs are just so much lower and it works just as well.
In fact, the Army Corps of Engineers is widening the Weir right now so more water can flow through it….and doing so using the exact same setup as the original 1916 design. It works great, why fix it?
That looks like an awful lot of work there!!!
I would open it, but thats just my opinion