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Location: Placer County, California
Owner/Client: Placer County Water Agency
00The 17-kilometer long Middle Fork Tunnel
is a hydro-power/water pressure tunnel in northern California, used to
convey water from the Hell Hole reservoir in the Sierra-Nevada Mountain
Range to the Middle Fork of the American River. The tunnel, constructed
between 1965 and 1967 using drill and blast techniques, operates at a
nominal water head of 200 meters, with a head variation of +/- 50 meters,
and is used to generate approximately 175 megawatts of electrical power.
The tunnel has a 3.2-meter diameter, 200-meter deep, concrete-lined surge
shaft at the downstream end. The horseshoe-shaped, 4.5-meter diameter
tunnel is predominately unlined, except for 20 percent that is lined with
steel or concrete.
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