Emergency Levee and Erosion Repairs

In 2017, Northern Californian counties were significantly vulnerable to flooding due to levee erosion, which threatened homes, infrastructure, and agricultural lands crucial to the local economy. Addressing levee erosion was critical to safeguarding lives and property, maintaining access to essential services, and protecting natural habitats. Additionally, replacing the levee system is aimed to bolster community resilience against future flood events, ensuring sustainable development and economic stability in the region.
 
Partnering with the Department of Water Resources (DWR), Forgen provided emergency response and levee construction for Emergency Levee Erosion and Stability Repairs for the California Natural Resources Agency at 11 sites in Tehama, Lake, Sutter, Colusa, and Yolo Counties in Northern California. This project was a crucial component of the broader effort to fortify flood defenses through heavy civil construction.

After initial mobilization and staging, Forgen installed temporary fencing around all work sites and staging areas, and turbidity curtains for sites requiring in-water construction. We installed exclusionary fencing around trees and other vegetation, including padding around the trunks of trees, to aid in protecting the natural ecology. To ensure public safety, we used traffic control and flagging methods, including installing and maintaining traffic detours as outlined in specified detour plans.

Across the eleven work sites, crews excavated and disposed of slide material, placed compacted earthfill, and integrated rockfill both in and above the water level with existing erosion control measures. This process was critical for effective levee construction and involved the use of geotextile fabric and launch rock. Workers placed agricultural soil on finished slopes and in voids within rockfill to create soil-filled rockfill, which they used with seeding and erosion control fabric.

Forgen provided clearing and grubbing, and tree removal from the site, including removing stump and roots, as well as a certified arborist for tree limbing and branch removal. The work also included harvesting and replanting pole cuttings of various willow species for reestablishing slope vegetation.

This project successfully restored critical levee infrastructure following damage from the 2017 floods and mitigated the risk of further degradation of these levee systems in Northern Californian counties by addressing critical erosion threats and safeguarding surrounding communities. Forgen’s collaboration with the DWR on this levee construction, emergency response, erosion control, and flood mitigation project not only protected infrastructure and agricultural lands but also enhanced coastal resiliency against future flood events, supporting sustainable development and economic stability in the region through strategic heavy civil construction efforts.