While Royal has been performing commercial and industrial electrical installations for more than four decades, the unique needs of the Folsom Dam project resulted in many different challenges, including: 
Coordination — Royal Electric created coordination CAD drawings to detail our installations in each concrete pour. Our electrical conduit, ground wire, boxes and other installations had to be coordinated for placement with the extensive rebar and the dewatering system embedded in the concrete. 
Sequencing — The original design called for five monoliths of concrete, each about 150 feet tall. Because of unforeseen loose granite, a sixth monolith of 30 feet was added. These monoliths were poured in five-foot lifts of concrete. In each of these pours, Royal installed our embedded installations. As a result, Royal crews were present the entire time during forming, setting of rebar and pouring of all lifts of concrete. 
Temporary Power — In addition to our electrical scope, Royal took care of the ever-changing temporary power needs of Granite Construction’s batch plant and for construction lighting and power throughout the project. This temporary power constantly had to be maintained and moved while the site changed with the additional concrete pours. 
Access to Electrical Gear — The main electrical equipment for the spillway is housed in the mechanical gallery approximately 100 feet up from the bottom of the spillway. Our electrical gear was crane-lifted into place midway through the concrete pours. It was then framed over to create a mechanical gallery, and concrete was poured over the top. Royal was not able to see or access our gear for almost six months until the pours were complete, and the formwork was removed. 
Coordination of Gate Controls — Royal’s scope included control wiring between the Hydraulic Power Units, provided by Leneta, and the Gate Controllers, provided by Electro Hydraulic Machinery. No interconnect drawings existed to show the control wiring connections between equipment, and the labeling was inconsistent between the equipment provided by each manufacturer. Royal worked extensively with the two manufacturers to properly design, install and as-built the control wiring that resulted in a functioning system. 
Safety — This project brought many unique safety concerns. During the first phase of the project, blasting was still occurring to remove granite, and Royal was required to take shelter for one hour per day until the blast was complete. Working around large cranes and the concrete operations, Royal crews had to be aware of their surroundings at all times. Finally, crews were working at extreme heights, making fall protection an everyday part of their operation. Once the monoliths were poured, access to the mechanical gallery that housed electrical equipment was via small winding staircases — a challenge for safely bringing materials and tooling in and out of the work area. In the five years that Royal worked on this project, there were no lost-time injuries to our crew.