Civil Engineering Program 2021 Projects

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: Abram Tadrous, Allen Bernard Cabanillas, Andrew Nunez, Anteneh Alemu, Argin Nazari, Cassandra Luu, Christopher Rocha, Daniel Echeverria Palencia, Danya Shelleh, David James Corona, Devin Reyes, Edward Mendoza, Erick Toscano, Gerardo Flores Ramirez, Hector Linares, Jacob Richard Martinez, Jesse Robert Gauf, Jose Maria Fuentes Calles, Joshua Gutierrez, Kaily Villanueva, Kevin Rodriguez, Luis Gerardo Torres III, Luis Sosa, Marco Siu Tun Mui, Michelle Munoz, Olivia Chamu Quintana, Oscar Martinez, Pootisun Siridachanon, Roberto Benavidez Molina, Rumman Kibria, Saul Cortez Jr., Steven Wong

A roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam is planned to create a more sustainable water resource supply within the next ten years for local mining interests.  The area of their required services comprises the city of Corona and the unincorporated regions of Riverside County.  The clients need 1.8 million gallons of water per day.  As RCC dams are easy and economical to construct, the project is a viable option to serve all future mining operational needs for non-potable water.

This proposed roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam will be creating a reservoir of approximately 160 million gallons of water. The reservoir will intercept rainfall from the local watershed, with the remaining supply being purchased from the Metropolitan Water District (MWD). The RCC dam is one of the most economical dams to construct and operate. Reduced cementitious content and the ease of placement and compaction lead RCC dams to be built more economically. An added advantage of the dam is that the spillway can be constructed into the dam body rather than having separate excavation and structure.

In addition to the RCC dam and to support water delivery to the mining interests, additional infrastructure would be required. The required infrastructure will include an intake tower, two water storage tanks, a pump station, pipelines, tunnels, and access roads. A preliminary design of all infrastructure that meets local, regional, and national permits and standards will be conducted.

Both the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements will be evaluated for every aspect of the project. These evaluations include addressing impacts on hydrology, air quality impacts, noise, flora, and fauna. Mitigation measures will be developed to lessen the environmental effects.

THU • MAY 6 @ 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

New Water Supply for Corona Mining Interests
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.

Innovative Conveyance and Reservoir System with an Earthen Dam to Provide Water to a Regional Mining Facility
Sponsor: AZTEC Engineering

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

Students: Jonathan Dakhil, Ana Solis, David Vo, Valente Rodriguez Luna, Roy Fonseca, Brandon Torres, Freddy Quijada, David Phong, Christina Sanchez, Christian Calvo, Emanuel Lopez Villa, Jorge Cortes, Matthew Mahlebashian, Jason Ng, Kevin Ramos, Ashley Morimoto, Erick Santillan Leon, Wilfred Castillo, Gabriela Sanchez, Soumya Puvvada, Richard Gutierrez, Jose Manuel Velazquez, Obed Coy, Anthony Mena, Mark Reyes, Alexandra Molina, Steven Medina, Candace Johnson, Ryan Traylor, Karelly Dorado, Nataly Fernandez, Hector Menendez, Destinie Rodriguez, Leslie Martinez

The Empire Engineering team has been tasked with investigating a new reliable source of non-potable water to replace the diminishing groundwater supply for the mining interest in the City of Corona. The engineering solutions will meet the operational needs of the mining interest and consider all technical aspects. Alternatives were proposed, investigated, and evaluated following the engineering design process. The recommended solution includes a new, reliable, and sustainable infrastructure for collecting, distributing, and storing non-potable water.

An earth embankment dam has been designed to hold 159 million gallons (488 acre-ft) of water to meet the client's demand of 1.8 million gallons per day. An open chute spillway will alleviate the reservoir overflow. For the reservoir's control release and emergency drainage, an inclined outlet structure along the existing embankment slope has been designed. A pump station and pipeline system will convey water from the reservoir to two steel tanks which supply water to the mining companies. The pump station will be located at the bottom of the dam with two pumps and interconnecting piping. The pipeline will consist of 3,477 feet of cement mortar-lined ductile iron pipe. The water tanks are designed to hold a capacity of 1.8 million gallons each to supply water for mining operations, firefighting requirements, and volume buffering. A newly paved road is intended to provide maintenance and inspection access. The route will connect to an existing Eagle Canyon Road to provide access to the top of the reservoir. The design will conform to the California Building Code (CBC), American Water Works Association (AWWA), and Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) requirements.

All elements of this project will have less than significant or no impact on the local environment with mitigations incorporated. The project will conform to the twenty-one environmental factors included in the CEQA Guidelines. Sustainability options have also been incorporated in the design, such as solar power lights, dust mitigation, runoff bio-retention, wildlife preservation, and local materials for the dam. All applicable permits will be obtained to comply with local, state, and federal regulations.