Small Dam Rehabs
by James Denning, Asst. Editor;Serial Information: Civil Engineering—ASCE, 1993, Vol. 63, Issue 1, Pg. 52-54
Document Type: Feature article
Abstract:
The nation's 95,000 small dams face many of the same problems as the rest of its infrastructure, but with less money available for repair. In response, the owners of small dams are finding inventive and budget-conscious ways of rehabilitating aging structures and getting more use out of them. Three case histories, developed from papers presented at the Association of State Dam Safety Officials 1992 annual conference in Baltimore, Md., show how engineers are fixing up the aging, earthen structures. At Fellows Lake, Springfield, Mo., City Utilities, the local power and water company, used removable concrete blocks to raise the spillway crest by 4 ft and add 1 billion gal. of reservoir capacity. Near Las Vegas, N.M., a team from Wright Water Engineers, Denver, Co., performed emergency temporary repairs on a concrete conduit that prevented a possible catastrophic failure and permitted the annual irrigation season to begin unhindered a week later. And in Cobb County, Ga., where encroaching downstream development meant the Reeves Lake Dam posed a possible threat to human life, Law Engineering, Atlanta, Ga., developed a seven-point plan to refurbish an overgrown dam and safely pass the design storm.
Subject Headings: Rehabilitation | Spillways | Dams | Structural safety | Lakes | Hydro power | Dam safety
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