Oroville Spillways Recovery

Starting in May 2017, DWR and its construction contractors began repairing and rebuilding Oroville’s main and emergency spillways. To ensure public safety, the main spillway was successfully repaired by November 1, 2017 in order to function as a flood control outlet if needed that winter.

In 2018, the main spillway was fully reconstructed to final design and the emergency spillway was completed. A concrete buttress to further bolster the emergency spillway wier and an underground secant pile wall and splashpad on the hillside were constructed to prevent uphill erosion if the emergency spillway is ever used again.

More than 1,000 people worked more than 2 million hours to rebuild the Oroville spillways to ensure the safety of downstream communities.