March 2010: water blasting the dam's face to prepare the surface

May 2010: surface is all clean now, ready for new concrete. The scraped rock on the right side shows how much higher the dam will be (the crane sort of points at it).

The San Diego County Water Authority is managing a project to raise the San Vicente Dam by 117 feet as part of its Emergency Storage Project, a system of reservoirs, interconnected pipelines, and pumping stations designed to make water available to the San Diego region in the event of an interruption in imported water deliveries. Here is their project website.

• San Vicente Dam Raise Project – tensile strength testing on existing dam and trial placement / United States Society on Dams 2012 Proceedings
• Dam raise reaches benchmark [photo gallery] / U-T San Diego, May 17, 2012
• San Vicente Dam will soon begin rising for real / GrokSurf, Aug 30, 2011
• San Vicente Dam raise halfway done / San Diego Source, Aug 25, 2011
• Concrete placement under way on saddle dam at San Vicente Reservoir / San Diego County Water Authority, Aug 17, 2011
• Raising of San Vicente dam to supply water to 300K / KFMB, Aug 17, 2011
• GEI Consultants selected to design the new San Vicente Bypass Pipeline / Water Online, Nov 19, 2010
• On the up – the San Vicente Dam raise project / International Water Power and Dam Construction, Jun 15, 2010
• San Vicente capacity to more than double / SignOnSanDiego, May 10, 2010
• Coming soon: major construction for San Vicente Dam raise / San Diego County Water Authority, May 6, 2010
• San Vicente Dam Raise tour / GrokSurf, Mar 11, 2010
• San Vicente Dam first phase construction 50% complete / GrokSurf, Feb 18, 2010
• San Vicente Dam photo tour / GrokSurf, Nov 18, 2009
• A quick look at the San Vicente Dam-raising project / GrokSurf, Oct 13, 2009
• San Vicente Dam-raising project begins / GrokSurf, Jul 9, 2009