Watsonville, Calif.-based Granite Construction Co. has been awarded a $126 million contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to build a new auxiliary spillway control structure for the Folsom Dam, located 20 miles northeast of Sacramento.

The USACE has teamed up with the dam’s current owner and operator, the Bureau of Reclamation, to perform several upgrades to the dam and reduce the region’s flood risk. Granite will book the project into backlog during the third quarter of 2010.

Granite will be performing extensive excavation and concrete work while installing six submerged tainter gates, a type of radial arm floodgate commonly used in dams and canal locks to control water flow. Once completed, the new control structure will allow dam operators to more safely release water through the spillway during large storms to reduce the risk of potential flooding to surrounding areas.

Construction is scheduled to begin in January 2011 and will take about 45 months to complete, according to Granite.