Here is a copy of the actual "Notice to Contractors" Bid request by DWR detailing all of the Repair work requirements for the Oroville Dam Main Spillway (bid includes 3 other dams).
Now compare this to the 2017 post blowout "emergency repair work" being done on the spillway. Identical wording. (except for the shotcrete work, over a million cubic yards of river debris excavation, 180,000 people evacuated, 4.7 million dollars a day in emergency work, and needing a "new spillway").
Before any contractor could bid, they had to personally attend an inspection of the spillway. The original estimated cost for this project was generated by a DWR engineer who defined all of the work required, including his own cost estimate for each category of repair work detailed in the Bid request.
You would think that SOMEONE would start putting 2+2 together on the extensive herringbone pattern fractures for the full length of the spillway.
btw- the 2009 bids submitted ranged from $776,055.00 to $954,475.00 for the complete Oroville spillway repair work. Emergency repair work is costing $4.7 million dollars a day.
DWR Notice To Contractors: Sealed Bid request for Spillway repairs 2009
note: abb credit for originally noting the 2009 bid request information.