The October ACEC monthly meeting featured guest speaker Randy Fessler, Principal Engineer & Construction Branch Manager for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). Randy began his presentation by welcoming all consultants in attendance and sharing that he has previously worked as a consultant and understands our business.

Randy’s presentation highlighted the Pajaro River Emergency Levee Repair Project that was performed by DWR.  Shortly after midnight on March 11, 2023, the Pajaro River levee failed approximately 10 miles inland form the pacific coast, creating a 120-foot-wide breach, resulting in uncontrolled flows onto the adjacent farmland and ultimately flooding the town of Pajaro, where nearly 17,000 people were forced to evacuate.

Randy reviewed the sequence of events leading up to DWR’s presence on the site and how DWR assumed responsibility for the emergency repair.  Prior to the levee failure, the local reclamation district had installed a muscle wall in an effort to stabilize the levee.  As the water continued to rise, the muscle wall failed and the levee breeched.  When the reclamation district requested help from the State, DWR was the first agency contacted to provide help.  DWR assessed their resources and response time and determined they had the ability to support this emergency project.

The first order of work for DWR was to establish a stable point of access to the repair site.  After reviewing the site, there was only one feasible access point that could be established, upstream of the breach.  Once access was established, DWR could start attempts to close the breach.  Their initial plan was to use the National Guard’s Chinook helicopters to place rock-filled super sacks.  After two attempts, it was determined that the weather posed too great a risk for that operation.

DWR moved to Plan B, which was to bring in track mounted dump trucks that rotate on a turret like an excavator.  This eliminated the need to back on-road trucks down the levee.  The on-road trucks delivered rock to a staging area, where loaders loaded the track dumps.  The track dumps traveled to the breach area, rotated 180 degrees, and dumped rock into the breach.  Using this method in a 24-hour operation, DWR was able to close thebreach by March 14^th.  During that time, the breach would grow to a maximum opening of 325 feet.  Once the breach was closed, they switched to 12-hour daytime shifts to place finer material that would hydraulically fill the remining voids in the placed rock.

On March18th cleanup of the site began, providing aggregate base along the levee, removal of excess stabilization material, repairs to private fencing, and replacement of the old access road with a new section of hot mix asphalt. DWR coordinated with local property owners to ensure that adequate cleanup was provided. Cleanup of the site and demobilization of equipment was completed on March 25th.

By Lincoln Lehman, Secretary/Treasurer

On October 25^th, the Sierra Chapter hosted our first PAC fundraiser event at Top Golf in Roseville. We had a great turnout and the evening was filled with good conversation, good food, and fun.  It was entertaining to watch everyone let their hair down a little and demonstrate their golf skills. I wanted to extend my thanks to all of you that supported the event by purchasing tickets.  We had attendees from the East Bay as well as Southern California. This event went a long way towards helping us meet our PAC fundraising goal for this year as we raised almost $4000 from this event. If you missed it, we hope you will join us next year. Many thanks to our sponsors: ACEC California, AECOM, Gannett Fleming, and Wood Rodgers who helped make this event a roaring success.

By Erik Fanselau, President

Every year, the ACEC California Scholarship Foundation seeks the best and brightest engineering and land surveying students in California and awards scholarships to them. Over the years, ACEC California has awarded over $700,000 in cash grants to hundreds of outstanding students.

The ACEC California Scholarship Awards are funded through generous donations from ACEC California Chapters, member firms, principals and employees. Donations to the Scholarship Foundation, a public non-profit benefit corporation, are tax deductible. Every dollar goes directly to the student – no money is used for overhead or administrative costs. The ACEC California Scholarship Foundation is administered through the generous volunteer work of ACEC Chapter members.

ACEC California will be awarding up to $65,000 in scholarships for qualified engineering and land surveying students throughout California for the 2024-2025 academic year ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 each. Sierra Chapter members serve as liaisons with local colleges and universities to distribute applications and promote the scholarships. I send information to Sac State and UOP while Rosa Griggs takes care of UC Davis.

ACEC-CA will be accepting applications until 5:00pm on January 26, 2024. All of the necessary information as well as the scholarship application are available at this link:

www.scholarshipappwww.acec-ca.org/scholarshipapp

The packages were also recently e-mailed to college Engineering Departments throughout California.

If you know a student who may be eligible for this year’s scholarship, please pass this information on to them.

By Marco Palilla, Director

Applications are now being accepted for the 13^th Annual Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship. Over the last 12 years, this fund has awarded 17 scholarships (some years we award more than one) worth nearly $50,000. You might remember that we increased the scholarship to $5,000 in 2021 and added Graduate Student eligibility.  The annual scholarship has historically been awarded to a Junior or Senior majoring in Civil Engineering/Transportation at California State University Sacramento, University of California Davis, or University of the Pacific. Our 2022 winners, Raven Cochrane and Judy Magaña, both from Sac State, each received checks for $5,000 at our Past Presidents Dinner last February.

This year’s flyer is attached to this newsletter. The scholarship is administered by the California Transportation Foundation and well supported by your Sierra Chapter. If you know a Junior, Senior or Graduate Student that qualifies, please pass the flyer on to them.

The Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship was established in the name of our good friend and Sierra Chapter Past President, Tim Fleming, who passed away unexpectedly in November 2010 at the young age of 51. Tim was a graduate of the University of the Pacific and Stanford University and served our industry tirelessly as a leader and colleague. This scholarship honors his legacy and reminds us all that life is precious. This year’s winner(s) will be selected and then honored at our next Past Presidents Dinner scheduled for February 21, 2024. Reserve this date on your calendar now!

By Marco Palilla, Director

Fall is upon us!  ACEC has many different roles that are all important.  However, my favorite mission is supporting our students and schools. With the change of seasons and school back in session, I was inspired to share with you what your Chapter does to support students and future professionals.  As I mentioned in my first column, I hope to keep you informed of our Chapter activities and initiatives. With that in mind, I think some of you might be surprised with how much we actually contribute to worthy students and school groups each year. Over the last year your Chapter has contributed more than $18,000 in funding to a variety of scholarships and school groups. Here is a partial list of recipients: ACEC California Scholarship Foundation, Tim Fleming Scholarship, CREATE scholarship, Davis Robotics, San Joaquin Engineers, Wolfpak Boosters, Silent Bot STEM, UOP, CSUS, and UC Davis. None of this would be possible without your annual dues.  As a result, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation for your membership and I hope you can take some satisfaction in knowing that a portion of your dues are going directly to support young people and future professionals.

By Erik Fanselau, President