Construction crews have finished a huge new $307 million outlet tunnel at Anderson Dam, completing a key step in a $3.2 billion seismic project to rebuild the largest dam in Santa Clara County —and reduce the risk of flooding this winter in San Jose as a historically strong El Niño winter approaches. The new tunnel, which is 24 feet high and 1,736 feet long with a 13-foot-diameter steel pipe running through the middle, has been under construction for two years. It will allow the sprawling reservoir east of Highway 101 near Morgan Hill to be drained more quickly in the event of an earthquake, extreme storm or other incident. … The dam’s previous outlet pipe was very small, which contributed to the floods in downtown San Jose during major storms in 2017.

Other dam and reservoir news:

• Chico Enterprise-Record (Calif.) DWR preps Oroville Dam spillway for inspections
• SFGate: ‘Cultural genocide’: California approves massive reservoir over tribal objections
• The Sacramento Bee (Calif.): California’s biggest water project in 50 years gets green light. Here’s what to know
• Active NorCal (Redding, Calif.): The $9 billion reservoir that would pull water from the Sacramento River is officially a go