Ames Construction is retrofitting the existing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Red Rock Dam on the Des Moines Riveran existing dam for hydroelectric power. The Red Rock Hydroelectic Project is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and will have a rated generating capacity of 36.4 MW at normal reservoir level. The combined maximum generating capacity will be 55 MW at higher reservoir levels and/or flows. The estimated annual energy produced by the project will be 178,000 Wh, or enough to power approximately 18,000 homes.

A $1.4 billion general civil contract has been awarded to a limited partnership between Bechtel Canada Co., Barnard Construction of Canada Ltd. and EllisDon Civil Ltd. for construction of the proposed 695-megawatt Keeyask generating station. Manitoba is growing and so is the demand for electricity. New sources of electricity are needed to maintain the reliable supply Manitoba Hydro customers count on. The Keeyask Generating Station will fill this need. When completed in 2021, it will add approximately 4,400 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity per year to Manitoba Hydro’s total supply. That’s enough electricity to power 400,000 homes.

The award marks the beginning of the fourth and final construction phase of the spillway project, an approximately $900-million cooperative effort between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood Protection Board, Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency and the Corps to help reduce the Sacramento region’s flood risk. The spillway will allow the Bureau of Reclamation to make more controlled water releases from Folsom Dam earlier during large storms. The Bureau of Reclamation completed most of the excavation for the spillway chute in the project’s first two phases. In May 2012, Granite Construction Company of Watsonville began construction on the project’s third phase: the spillway’s control structure, essentially a second dam. In phase four, the Corps will oversee Kiewit’s construction of a 3,027-feet-long spillway chute and stilling basin, as well as the 1,100-feet-long approach channel that connects the new spillway to the reservoir.

The Willow Island project will divert water from the existing Corps Willow Island Locks and Dam through bulb turbines to generate an average annual output of approximately 239 million kilowatt-hours (kWh). The site will include an intake approach channel, a reinforced concrete powerhouse and a tailrace channel. The powerhouse will house two horizontal FERC rated 17.5 MW bulb type turbine and generating units with an estimated total FERC rated capacity of 35 MW at a gross head of 20 feet. A 1.6-mile-long 138 kV transmission line interconnection is planned to connect to PJM. The Willow Island Locks and Dam are located in Pleasant County, West Virginia, approximately 162 river miles downstream of Point Bridge, Pittsburgh. The Willow Island project is under construction on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River, on the opposite shore of the locks.

The La Vegona hydropower project comprises a 38.5 MW run-of-the-river hydroelectric development on the Humuya or Comayagua River, 8 kilometers downstream from the existing 300MW Francisco Morazan (“El Cajon”) hydroelectric project. The Project is expected to produce an average of approximately 172 GWh per annum. The Project will sell electricity to industrial clients as well as the state-owned utility ENEE under long-term power purchase agreements (“PPA”).

The auxiliary spillway is being built to address the hydrologic risk to Folsom Dam identified by BuRec’s Safety of Dams program. The work is a Joint Federal Project by BuRec, the Corps, California Department of Water Resources, and Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. The control structure includes foundation excavation and preparation, submerged tainter gate fabrication and installation and mass concrete placement. The structure includes two 89-foot-wide independent flow-through monoliths flanked by three non-flow-through monoliths. Each flow-through monolith is to house three submerged tainter gates, 23 feet wide by 34 feet tall.