Design & Construction of the Olivenhain RCC Dam

The Olivenhain Dam is a new roller-compacted concrete (RCC) gravity dam located near San Diego, California. At 318-feet-high (97-meters), the Olivenhain Dam will be the largest RCC dam in America and the first RCC dam in the state of California. The Olivenhain dam will impound more than 24,000 acre ft of storage as part of a 12 year, Emergency Storage Project (ESP) for the San Diego County Water Authority (Authority). The ESP is being developed for emergency preparedness in the San Diego region against a disruption in water deliveries from outside the County, including earthquake and drought. This paper presents a general project description with a summary of the dam design, including specific dam safety design features of the foundation, structural and operational systems to improve seismic survivability. In addition, the paper provides a brief description of the Authority's ESP, the planning process that culminated in the development of the Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir, and the role of the project in the final ESP system. This paper will also summarize the dam construction that occurred between 2001 and 2003. 14 pp., 3 figures.