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FOLSOM-

It’s a busy 24-hour, six-day a week operation near the Folsom Dam site, all of it with the goal to shield Sacramento from the worst that rainy weather might do.

FOX40’s cameras were the first to get into the construction pit for the dam’s auxiliary spillway since this first spillway gate arrived close to 11 p.m. on March 13.

That massive piece of equipment and the 12 other gates for the structure will have been driven 600 miles before they make it to their destination.

From the foundation to top of the control structure is about the same height as the Statue of Liberty.

Each bay will be able to funnel 55,000 cubic feet of water per second.

So what’s next for the very first gate to get on site?

“The roller housing, eight of of them, go on each side of the bulkhead gate and that basically goes down into the slot so it rolls up with the hoist mechanism at the top,” senior project manager Katie Huff said.

A crane even taller than the structure will slide that bulkhead into place in one of six bays at the spillway.

The room for error for this construction element is only a 16th of an inch on each side of its designated slot.

The straight bulkheads for this $900 million project will work in harmony with curved tainter to evenly regulate what could be the fateful force of a flood.

PHOTOS: Spillway Gates Arrive in Folsom

“These gates are 50-foot lower in elevation so in that flood event we’ll be able to release water much sooner and safer so that the levies downstream are able to handle it without flooding out Sacramento,” said Huff.

Part of the ground now up on top of the construction site, almost level with Folsom Lake Crossing, will actually start disappearing in July.

It will be part of the excavation of more than 3.8 million cubic yards of dirt, rock and other material that has to be removed from the site.

As it vanishes, the new water approach for the control structure will be created.

Another 179 ton tainter gate is scheduled to arrive at the project site on Saturday.

The whole spillway should be complete by October 2017.