Posted on 02/12/2017 4:26:47 PM PST by janetjanet998
Edited on 02/12/2017 9:33:58 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
The Oroville Dam is the highest in the nation.
There we are in solid agreement.
Curiously, if reimbursement money was not made available, would Kiewit’s pay be in jeopardy?
Kiewit is being paid via this line of credit. It is the State of California that is liable for the line of credit. Can you imagine if CA decided not to pay Kiewit, and then Kiewit publicly announces that construction will stop? (I can't imagine this scenario, but it would be the worst PR move -ever... besides the obvious of risking lives by not fixing the spillway).
= = SacBee Article clip:
The $500 million line of credit was arranged through Wells Fargo, despite State Treasurer John Chiang’s decision last fall to suspend the big bank from most forms of state business as punishment for a scandal over unauthorized customer accounts. Chiang spokesman Marc Lifsher said the DWR credit deal doesn’t violate the treasurer’s rules.
= = End clip
I can answer that one authoritatively. Yes, it is - always - until the check clears. First there's the 'slow pay.' The contractor has to meet payroll right now, fuel bills, etc. But the customer drags you for 90 days. Especially so with 'government work.'
Then, the customer decides you've not performed up to spec and decides to keep the 10 or 15 percent final payment.
So one of you or the other goes to court, and what does that do to the prospect of timely payment? And, as a contractor, what does it to to your reputation if it gets around that you sue your customers?
With DWR, we've already established they lie and try to hide what's going on. In other words, they ain't honest people. Do you think they would hesitate to stiff the contractor?
“The operators were, and are, negligent.”
Bingo. Grossly negligent.
I believe the question was derived in what CA might do if the upstream monies were suddenly jeopardized (FEMA & water contractors via DWR exposed as Liable for the failure). (i.e. even though DWR has the line of credit, politically what would they possibly do if they knew their reimbursement sources went south).
Kiewit is a smart company with the legal & professional resources to deal with and anticipate the typical contract financial "games". DWR is desperate in "looking good" right now as this whole crisis & the official forensics don't look good. DWR is also facing a growing resistance in the relicensing politics.
The May 11 Legislative hearing revealed a scrutiny in questions on DWR's anticipated reimbursement costs by the financial sources in charge (State). With Legislator Gallagher & State Sen Nielsen (press & others) keeping close ties to activities, I suspect that any "games" with financial payments in reconstruction work would likely become public very quickly.
In fact, at that Legislative hearing, there was pressure applied to DWR to insure there were "incentive" payment rewards for the contractor in delivering "better-than" in schedules.
With all of this added together, I suspect that DWR (and the state) would think twice about messing in "payment games".
What I'm more concerned with is a "blitz" of "mis-information" intended to defuse the impact of the upcoming forensic report (if it hasn't been effectively thwarted internally by now - i.e. clue indicator - the forensic team asking public for confidential input)
I agree that "games" can be played. I also suspect that there will be new explosive revelations that DWR doesn't want out in the public. How? The first clue was the obvious "twisting" by the foundation inspection memo 8 report.
The stakes are extremely high right now for DWR (and indirectly including the state). This situation determines the level of what "games" or moves on the game table may be played to avert the potential damage.
Correction - the “incentive” payment item was brought up in an earlier Legislative hearing, not the May 11 hearing. (I need to find the earlier date).
Big crane now being used to swing concrete bucket over lower spillway pour.
http://www.water.ca.gov/oroville-spillway/pdf/2017/FINAL_July%20Community%20Mtgs%20Advisory.pdf
Schedule of July Public Meetings
OROVILLE
Monday, July 17, 2017
Oroville Municipal Auditorium, 1200 Myers St, Oroville, CA 95965
6:00 PM
MARYSVILLE
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Caltrans District 3, Sierra Nevada Room, 703 B St, Marysville, CA 95901
6:00 PM
YUBA CITY
Monday, July 24, 2017
Boyd Hall, 1895 Lassen Blvd, Yuba City, CA, 95993
6:00 PM
This is like the novel “Atlas Shrugged” where US citizens become so broken and demoralized by the statist rules, nobody will admit responsibility. In effect, why bother sticking your neck out? Complete apathy and moral decay.
“Who is John Galt?”
I believe some good people will come forward, even if confidentially. Some already have (to Scott Cahill & the "deep void filling" - construction repair/workers witnessing pumping concrete under the slabs in deep voids).
This has led to other quiet "behind the scenes" events of investigation. Then this led to the "large blocks" findings/evidence that was boosted by the worker who posted an unauthorized image on social media and was fired (he was a hero in providing crucial evidence via that photo without knowing it).
Forums have been examining piles of evidence & analyzing it at an elevated engineering level. This has led to technical articles & more research. Then early independent failure analysis reports were published (USACE & CCRM).
CA Legislators, commissioners, and groups have combined in a common effort. Even residents at town hall meetings were knowledgeable in engineering issues demonstrated in hard questioning.
If you look back at the totality of all of the tremendous information that has come out (good engineering evidence & operations history), the pendulum has momentum for people to come forward - but NOT to the Forensic Team.
That is one of the big "reveals" in the Forensic Team by them suddenly setting up a "hotline" tip email address - supposedly anonymous, but with the ominous "legal unmasking disclaimer".
Any entity with good information will very likely bypass the Forensic Team, and will likely do what they can to help the outside independent investigation(s) and/or contacting Legislative representatives - just as in the case with someone close to the situation that contacted Scott Cahill.
Usually, the more nervous one side gets, the more "reaction" is observed. :-)
An early sign to a potentially clever plan was revealed in April 25, 2017 regarding the Independent Forensic Team Report. David Gutierrez, acting technical advisor & consultant for DWR, responded to an inquiry from the Chico-Enterprise Record. In this response, David revealed a strategy that very likely will be used; a strategy if used, could possibly work to DWR's favor but only IF all sources of information are kept within an umbrella of inferred national security.
The article clip below reveals direct statements from David that "DWR will be making the forensic team's report public under the same security constraints". Translate = DWR may "deem" an item and/or information a "national security designation" and thus may withhold/redact this information from the Forensic Team report.
This "national security blanket" has been used by DWR well beyond reason, to which the press & legislators have been extremely frustrated over. Yet, when DWR finds conditions favorable, they will openly release a full unredacted report (such as the recent Memo 8) to where the press notes that the document was originally noted containing "national security information" (CEII). So either DWR is being extremely careless and publicly releasing "national security infrastructure information", OR, DWR is demonstrating that they are abusing the "national security" designation. It's either one or the other.
Memo 8 was important to DWR to get "out there" as DWR is facing harsh evidence that (1) they are aware and/or knew the spillway was built upon a layer consolidated dirt/soils [violating the original design specs] (2) they are aware and/or knew that the required "leveling concrete" was not done per the original design specifications. The "cherry picked" photo in Memo 8 is trying to counter (1) & (2). Won't work. Another DWR photo demolishes (1) showing a large amount of soil under the cut away slab. (2) is disproven by all of the spillway destruction remains evidence. There's no evidence of large blocks of "leveling" concrete in the deep highly weathered rock chasms (from the electrical towers down to and past the blowout failure area).
So DWR is already dismantling their own original position of saying that some of the forensic report will be held to "national security" requirements as DWR is openly publishing "national security" filed documents, unredacted, a few days ago in Memo 8.
If this tactic is tried in the final forensic report, the "holes" in information created by a "national security" reason, will create a picture with puzzle pieces that will not fit together. This would result in such a weak forensic report that its credibility could crumble in a simple review from the expertise in the dam engineering community.
The best advice that could be offered is to be as honest as possible with the most information as possible (i.e. do it right).
= = Article clip: (emphasis mine) - "Guitierrez clarified there is a difference between the board of consultants and the forensic review team. Both are independent and a requirement by the state and FERC, but the board is reviewing the redesign of the Oroville Dam spillways while the forensic team is looking into what caused the spillway failure in the first place. DWR will be making the forensic team’s report public under the same security constraints, he said.
= = end clip more at link
Oroville Dam repair is huge, but so is residents’ mistrust
By Kurtis Alexander - June 18, 2017 Updated: June 18, 2017 9:50pm
The 3,000-foot-long main chute — where the crisis began Feb. 7 when a crater opened up amid heavy releases from the lake — didn’t have water stops to seal joints and prevent leaks from weakening it. Also, there is too little steel reinforcement in the structure, and the pipes that drain water beneath it are made of clay instead of superior PVC.
“You can’t even find clay pipes anymore,” Gutierrez said, as he looked down from the top of the 770-foot earthen dam that was completed in 1968.
I guess it's about which taxpayer pocket is picked to pay for repairs. And which entity will be sued by ambulance chasers. And thousands of man hours are going to be spent trying to avoid and place blame.
California and all of America was populated by self-sufficient folks fifty years ago who were raised on the mother's milk of not stealing from your neighbor or your boss or your government. I remember it well. The Oroville dam spillway improper construction in the late 60’s, probably at the end of Pat Brown's administration, was symbolic of the new era to come.
Just a "heads-up". A prior public DWR pdf file is now "garbled". Discovered this after FR discussion was noting the subject of "drains" & repairs. This file is "evidence" in a forensic sense. Sorry to be a bit cryptic. Just posting this to make it public that this is not going unnoticed... Hello to watchers..
I will wait for Forensic Reports to come out to see how this is handled.
(p.s. the "evidence" remains to those that are in the know).
The "garbling" of the public file has rectified itself. For now, the best position is to assume it was not DWR but some other anomaly. I'll still keep this public file "unidentified" as it is useful to others in a forensic investigation (let them discover it in their efforts).
as I anticipated in discussing the crane sizing in #3886, LOL.
I’ve been looking at the live video several times a day, and it looks like they’ve got a drill rig sitting on one of the fresh pours in the lower spillway. Coring samples for test cylinders, perhaps? Also can be seen here.
I am trying to free up my schedule to be in Marysville tomorrow - not looking good right now.
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