Video shows progress on $500 million Oroville Dam spillway project

California’s Department of Water Resources has released a video showing progress on a $500 million project to build a new main spillway at the Oroville Dam.

Hundreds of construction workers are working 20 hours a day, six days a week with huge dump trucks, cranes, excavators, bulldozers, concrete pumps and other equipment to demolish and rebuild the 3,000-ft.-long main spillway, and shore up the emergency spillway, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The project’s goal rebuild enough of the main spillway — which is as wide as 15 lanes of freeway — by Nov. 1 so that it can be ready for heavy rains this winter. The entire job is scheduled to be finished in 2018.

This footage was shot by a camera looking down the spillway toward the Feather River. It was shot between June 26 and Aug. 22 by Kiewit Corp., of Omaha, NE, the project’s lead contractor.

The Mercury News writes:

The most dramatic changes begin to occur at about :30 seconds into the footage, as crews begin laying roller-compacted concrete that will form a base for structural concrete, reinforced with steel, that will be placed on top of it.

Oroville Dam is the tallest dam in the United States, at 770 ft. high.