Month: February 2025

CLICK HERE TO SEE **THUNDER MOUNTAIN IN THE NEWS**

In 2014 city officials were forced to make the controversial decision to cancel Old Sacramento’s Gold Rush Days. The decision was made in light of California’s severe drought and after receiving reports that cleanup required well over 100,000 gallons of water. To bring Gold Rush Days back to Sacramento, this year city representatives in partnership with Thunder Mountain Enterprises have implemented a plan using less than 4000 gallons for dust control and cleanup of the event. The big difference though is that all the water is recycled.

Thunder Mountain Enterprises, a Sacramento based soil and water management firm, provided storm drain inlet protection BMPs, dust control, dirt removal and street cleaning for this event.

Thunder Mountain is California’s leading expert in stormwater management, fish friendly dust control, and environmental design/build construction services.

Although hydroseeding can often be an effective treatment for surficial slope instabilities, steep slopes and landslide prone terrain call for an altogether different approach.

The first step in analyzing a particular site is to determine the primary source of instability. Most frequently this can be attributed to high soil saturation and poor drainage. When combined with weak soils, joints or fissures in the slope material, contrasting material permeability, and steep slopes, the result is often catastrophic.

TME is partnering with URS Corp to conduct a series of statewide training courses for Caltrans. Each two-day course begins with an overview of water pollution control requirements and responsibilities, and ends with a hands-on field demonstration.

The field demo allows Resident Engineers and other Caltrans staff to see first-hand how BMPs such as hydro-mulch, DI protection, fiber rolls, silt fence, and check dams are properly implemented. Participants get to try their hand at straw mulching and hydro-seeding, among other activities.

TME’s reputation as California’s foremost Storm Water authority was key in its selection for the job. The courses, which are part of Caltrans’ Resident Engineer Certificate Program, will be taking place throughout the months of January, February, and March 2013.

• conventional: slope repair methods including construction of retaining walls, slope excavation and reconstruction, and rip rap placement
• deadman: buried object (typically concrete with reinforcing steel) used as an anchor
• failure plane: the surface between two layers of soil where mechanical failure occurs
• gabion: steel wire basket filled with rock or concrete; used in slope stabilization, channel linings, revetments, and other earth retention applications
• geocell: honeycomb-like structure made of HDPE and filled with soil, rock, or other materials; used in slope and road base stabilization
• gravity wall: retaining wall typically constructed of stone or concrete, which relies on its mass (“gravity”) to resist the pressure bearing on it
• GRS: geosynthetic reinforced soil
• MSE: mechanically stabilized earth
• percussion anchor: earth anchoring device driven and load-locked into place; forms a frustum cone of compressed soil above anchor
• rotational failure: slope failure occurring on a circular (concave upward) slip surface
• RSP: rock slope protection
• sheet pile: thin, interlocking steel panels driven into the ground to form retaining walls and cofferdams
• shotcrete: pneumatically applied concrete, typically sprayed on reinforcing mesh to form a sculpted wall facing
• soil friction angle: shear strength parameter of soil
• soil nail: reinforcing element such as rebar or a hollow bar drilled and grouted into place; used (often in conjunction with shotcrete facing) in slope stabilization, oversteepened embankments
• soldier pile: wide flange “H” steel piles driven at intervals along a planned excavation perimeter; used in conjunction with lagging to create retaining walls
• tie back: wire, rod, or helical anchor used to secure retaining walls
• uniaxial geogrid: grid-like structure made of HDPE, commonly used in slope reinforcement and retaining wall applications (as opposed to biaxial or triaxial geogrid, commonly used for base reinforcement)