Price tag drops on massive reservoir expansion near Bay Area

A $1 billion plan to raise the height of the dam at one of California’s largest reservoirs, San Luis Reservoir between Gilroy and Los Banos, to provide more water to Santa Clara County and parts of the Central Valley during droughts, has received a major and unusual boost: The cost has gone down.

In an era when large public works projects, from high-speed rail to new reservoirs, routinely see big jumps in price, the cost to expand the reservoir, originally built in the 1960s, has fallen by about 20% ...