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Associate Professor Richard Holman,
Department of Construction Management
From his work on a gold-mining project to his overseeing the construction
of a 28-story device at Shasta Dam designed to work 300 feet below
water level, Associate Professor Richard Holman, Construction
Management, makes it a point to share his on-the-job experiences
with his CSU, Chico students.
"I try to give students firsthand accounts of successes and failures,"
says Holman. "They seem to appreciate and understand the theories
better when I can tell them, 'Well, this happened to me on this
particular project.' When it's a mistake that can cost thousands
of dollars, the students would prefer to know now so that they
can avoid it in the field."
Holman, a full-time instructor who is currently working on his
master's degree, has accrued an extensive cache of on-the-job
experiences to draw from since completing his B.S. in Construction
Management at CSU, Chico in 1987. In the last decade, Holman has
worked on several multi-million dollar projects, including the
$140 million, 480,000-square-foot expansion of Boeing's 777 manufacturing
plant in Seattle.
More recently, and closer to Chico, Holman was project engineer
on the construction of the Shasta Dam Temperature Control Device
(TCD), completed last December. The TCD could prove to be the
best way to reconcile the preservation of salmon habitat with
the state's growing demand for electricity.
Under federal mandate, the dam operatorsthe U.S. Bureau of Reclamationhad
to mitigate the water temperature releases to protect the threatened
winter-run Chinook salmon after it was discovered, in 1989, that
winter Chinook populations in the Sacramento River had plummeted
from more than 117,000 to only 200. The decline was attributed
to releases of warm water into the salmon's spawning areas during
breeding periods from July to September.
To harness the 589,000 kilowatts of electricity the dam produces,
water must pass through the dam's powerhouse. During wet years,
high reservoir levels allow cool water through the powerhouse;
however, during dry years, lower water levels result in warmer-than-normal
water temperatures. Survival of salmon fry requires temperatures
between 42; and 56F. Anything above 60F causes 100 percent mortality.
The drought conditions of the 1970s and 1980s resulted in routine
warm-water releases that killed most of the winter-run Chinook.
In an attempt to restore salmon populations, the Bureau of Reclamation
had been bypassing the powerhouse during the periods of the salmon
run for the past seven years. The result was a loss between 1989
and 1994 of countless kilowatts of electricity and more than $40
million in power generation revenues.
In December 1994, construction began on the TCD, a submersed,
hanging structure attached to the dam face. The $64 million project
is a series of seventeen gates for water intake at various levels
and temperatures, allowing precise control of water temperature
and releases.
"It was a tremendous undertaking. Imagine taking five 28-story
buildingsten feet shorter than the Statue of Libertyand attaching
them to the face of a dam 344 feet under water," says Holman,
smiling as he relates how each 45-foot segment was completed above
water level and then lowered in a cradle. Remote-controlled robotics
drills were used to make holes in the dam; specially trained divers
secured the segments to the dam face.
Divers for subcontractor Oceaneering International lived in pressurized
conditions for periods of up to thirty-one days. The four-person
team alternated between making the underwater dam connections
and relaxingif one can relax in a tight, tube-like compression
chamberon an offshore platform.
The TCD is Holman's favorite accomplishment to date. When he shows
his students the foot-long segment of a diamond-tipped drill bit
and an arm-length concrete core taken from the dam, he gives them
tangible evidence of the enormous career opportunities that await
them.
CSU, Chico's Construction Management program has about 200 students
per year, a 95 percent retention rate, and a 100 percent placement
rate. In May 1996, seventy graduates averaged three job offers
each. Holman and the seven other full-time faculty in the department
feel confident that their students leave the University with the
knowledge and skills they need to enter the large and growing
construction field at the managerial level.
Angelique Clarke, student assistant, earned her B.A. in English
and Certificate in Literary Editing in May 1997. She has served
as an editing assistant for Kaleidoscope and the University Bulletin and as editor for Impulse. (This article first appeared in the University Bulletin, February
10, 1997.)
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