Leica Geosystems’s advanced robotic total station monitoring system has assisted the East Bay Municipal District (EBMUD) monitor the almost 90-year old San Pablo Dam in California as part of a $55 million seismic upgrade.

The San Pablo Dam is an earthen dam constructed in 1920 that impounds an 834 acre reservoir that can store 38,600 acre ft. of raw water. The reservoir serves several important water supply functions including emergency standby storage, regulation of an aqueduct supply, and conservation/storage of local runoff from Bear and San Pablo Creeks. The seismic upgrade includes the expansion of the downstream buttress for the dam with a series of shear walls using a cement-deep-soil-mixing-process.

The Leica Geosystems monitoring system incorporates three robotic total stations and is used for proactive monitoring and risk assessment of key points along the dam during construction. The system includes Leica TCA1201 robotic total stations set up in permanent, environmentally protected huts at the project site. These total stations automatically monitor a series of prisms positioned at key locations along the dam. Data from the total stations are relayed in real-time via a wireless connection from the total stations to the Leica GeoMoS software processing and analysis software. These data are easily accessed by EBMUD personnel, and provide comprehensive information on displacement.

“As our infrastructure continues to age, it’s vital that experts have the right tools to continuously monitor and assess risk. We are extremely pleased to be providing this advanced surveillance technology to EBMUD in keeping with this important need,” said David Rutledge director of Leica’s Structural Monitoring program.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) supplies water and provides wastewater treatment for parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay in northern California. EBMUD is a publicly owned utility formed under the Municipal Utility District Act passed by the California Legislature in 1921.

For more information on on Leica Geosystems, visit www.leica-geosystems.com.

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