SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After half a decade of planning, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is finally set to start the Folsom Dam Raise project, a project to protect hundreds of thousands of people from catastrophic flooding.
The Folsom Dam Raise project is quite literally a project to raise the Folsom Dam, something that is expected to help prevent future flooding.
Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D - Calif.) has been working on all things flooding in Sacramento since 2005 and is at the forefront of the Folsom Dam Raise.
"This part is really important, because it deals with retaining more water and being able to have it here instead of dumping the whole thing over," Matsui said. "And now we can do both."
Matsui said raising the dam will help the Sacramento region avoid the same kind of devastation that New Orleans saw with Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.
Raising parts of Folsom Dam 3.5 feet might sound like a small increase, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that could potentially save 440,000 people and $58 billion in assets.
"Now they are looking at Sacramento as a good example — that we don’t stop, we look ahead," Matsui said.
There will be work done on the eights dikes and the right- and left-wing dams. There will also be a modification to the spillways.
Construction at Folsom Lake has already begun, and the project is set to wrap up in 2025.
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