California Department of Water Resources Urban and Non-Urban Levee Evaluations

AECOM performed geotechnical evaluations for 1,900 miles of urban and non-urban levees for the State of California, Department of Water Resources.

Under the Urban Levee Evaluations (ULE) Project, AECOM performed geotechnical evaluations of 425 miles of state, federal, and appurtenant non-project levees protecting highly-populated urban areas in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins of the California Central Valley. This includes population centers of greater than 10,000 people in the greater Sacramento, Stockton-Lathrop and Marysville-Yuba City. The overall objective of the ULE Program was to determine whether these urban levees meet defined geotechnical criteria by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and, where required, identify remedial measures to meet those criteria with the goal of helping California bring these urban levees to a 200-year flood level of protection. To expedite collection of data and support flood control efforts, levee evaluations were conducted in simultaneous geographic regions. The $80 million program included cutting-edge investigations and analyses technologies and innovative remediation solutions to facilitate expedited evaluations and prioritization of funding.

Under the Non-Urban Levee Evaluations (NULE) Project, AECOM is providing geotechnical evaluation and assessment of non-urban levees in the Sacramento River basin as well as overall technical program management of the NULE project in both the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins. The area covers more than 1,200 miles of non-urban state/federal project levees and nearly 275 miles of appurtenant non-urban non-project levees. Non-urban levees are those that protect fewer than 10,000 people.

This $45 million project is being performed in two phases. The first phase consists of data collection, field visits, and a desktop assessment of existing conditions and past levee performance. Levees not meeting the program criteria are identified and prioritized for further evaluation. The second phase of program included limited field investigations and geotechnical analysis of selected high priority levees in a process similar to the ULE project assessments.