Concrete Gravity Dam

ECST Capstone Senior Design 2020-2021 Project
CIVIL ENGINEERING PROGRAM

NEW WATER SUPPLY FOR CORONA MINING INTERESTS
(Concrete Gravity Dam)
SPONSOR: AZTEC ENGINEERING

Liaisons: Mark A. Chase, P.E., Senior Vice President, AZTEC Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Howard Lum, P.E.; Jason Song, P.E.; John Shamma, P.E.; Rupa Purasinghe, Ph.D., P.E.

Students: Omar Abdelhadi, Brayan Aguilar, Rayan Alobaidi, Ruben Alvarado, Oscar Bermudez, Sagun Bhattarai, Amilcar Castillo, Jonathon Castillo, Martha De La Cruz, Alejandra Del Rio, Alex Diaz, Alan Galvan, Grand Ho, Alondra Jimenez, Eric Lieu, Paul Lim, Jasmine Lopez, Alexander Mairena, Mohamed Mouajib, Carlos Perla, Cesar Rauda, Jamaie Scott, Hector Sepulveda-Roman, Anthony Trujillo, and Alexander Vallejo

The depletion of groundwater is a significant issue facing Southern California industries that depend solely on groundwater for their daily operations, and mining is no exception. Mining interests in eastern Corona have tasked the project team with providing them a reliable source of clean, non-potable water necessary for their operations to replace their diminishing groundwater supply. The existing supply under current pumping needs will be depleted within a decade. To meet the water needs of the mining interest, new storage and conveyance infrastructure would be required. The infrastructure will be located in Cajalco Creek, between the eastern border of Corona and Lake Mathews. The primary constraint that will be considered is the project's budget, as well as meeting all applicable permitting requirements, environmental impacts, schedule requirements of the client, community, and socioeconomic concerns. In the design of the new infrastructure, all applicable safety regulations will be adhered to. The construction of the new facilities will have minimal interruptions to current operations. To address facility service life requirements, the design will incorporate access roads for regular maintenance. The project team will provide the most sustainable, constructible, cost-effective solution subject to the client's review and approval.

Multidisciplinary collaboration in the field of civil engineering is essential to the successful design of every project. Although this project aims to provide a source of water for the local industry, there is much more than hydraulics and hydrology involved in the design process. Several components of the project that require multidisciplinary collaboration include the spillway, pipeline, and dam structure design. The geotechnical team provides essential knowledge regarding the project site's soil characteristics and mechanical properties. This information is critical because every structure designed requires a foundation to sit on, and the design of the foundation is dependent on the site soil properties. The design of the pipeline and accompanying pumping station, while primarily done by the hydraulics team, also requires significant participation from the structural team. The structure housing the pumps and the dynamic loads caused by pump operation are all taken into consideration by the structural team. While the sizing of the spillway and reservoir is based primarily on hydrological considerations, the viability of these structures still needs to be confirmed by the structural and geotechnical teams. The structural analysis must be done on the dam structure to ensure that it can resist sliding and overtopping using soil properties provided by the geotechnical team. The design team allows us to visualize the proposed structures and provide information about this site geometry.

Additionally, the Environmental team advises the rest of the project teams on regulations, standards, and permitting requirements. Identifying potential impacts and properly mitigating them is an essential aspect of sustainable design. Multidisciplinary collaboration is critical in the successful completion of the project design.

https://www.calstatela.edu/ecst/senio...