Orange County, Calif. — Metropolitan Water District (MWD) began drilling exploratory holes recently in mountains between the cities of Corona and Irvine to determine the feasibility of boring a tunnel under the Cleveland National Forest to transport water from Lake Matthews, in Riverside County, to Orange County. Drilling could take four months, with three more months of analysis. MWD is looking to gravity feed through 10 miles of tunnel, rather than the current 80 miles of pumping water around the mountains to reach its destination. The same area is being considered for a possible traffic tunnel, by transportation agencies in both counties. Separate drilling tests for that project is scheduled for later this year. Source: Press Enterprise
San Diego, Calif. — McCarthy Building Companies has just finished a $17-million University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Biomedical Library expansion and renovation. The three-level library addition features a distinctive cast-in-place pitched roof with steel core, designed to complement the roof structure of the existing facility.
Extension and refurbishment of the unique concrete roof was a near-impossible engineering and construction feat, according to McCarthy. The roof protruded 11 feet from the building and slopes upward at a 20-degree angle.
Sacramento, Calif. — Next time a favorite NBA basketball team plays the Sacramento Kings at the Arco Arena, just north this city, imagine what it would look like deluged with 15 feet or more of water. According to a flood map report released by FEMA recently, that's what could happen if the nearby levee systems fail on the Sacramento and American rivers. The report states that levees do not meet the federal 100-year flood protection regulations. Thousands of homes lay in the same area of the low-lying Natomas basin. Now, building restrictions are expected to increase, and more mortgage holders will be required purchase federal flood insurance. Rates could double. However, the Sacramento Area Flood Control has already started a $370-million levee upgrade after discovering weakness in the system last year. When upgrades are finished, it is hoped that the Natomas area will be removed from FEMA's flood map. A check of local area blogs, however, reveals that flooding risks in the basin are not new to Sacramento area residents.
