This webinar will review the 1938 construction failure of the upstream slope of Fort Peck Dam, Montana. The failure began at about 1:15 PM on September 22, 1938 as the construction work had progressed to within 20 feet of the final dam crest elevation. One hundred eighty men were working in the area. Thirty four men were injured. Eight men lost their lives, six of whom were never found and are buried somewhere in the dam. As a result of this s...

This course will provide a thorough overview of the fundamentals of specifying the fresh and hardened properties of concrete mixes; the review of applicable codes for concrete hydraulic structures; the design philosophy and methodology of reinforced concrete hydraulic structures; and issues associated with the construction process. The course will include actual design examples of frequently used hydraulic structures utilizing current design c...

Dam-related problems include blockage of fish migrations, drowning hazards, failure hazards, reservoir sedimentation, habitat loss, and tailwater erosion. Some environmental problems can only be addressed through dam removal while other issues, where removal is not a viable option, can be remediated by dam modification and nature-like fish passage. Traditional fish passage projects have typically focused solely on passage of single or few lar...

With the release of HEC-RAS 5.0 (and newer versions), the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) has added the ability to perform two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic routing to the HEC-RAS computer model. This webinar will provide an overview of the new HEC-RAS 2D tools and solution processes and the basic capabilities of the HEC-RAS 2D model. The 2D flow modeling can be accomplished by adding 2D flow area element. This is similar to adding a stora...

This course will address a variety of geologic issues in dam and levee design and safety engineering, with emphasis on the application of 3D geologic modeling and other technologies to enhance communication between the project geoscientists and the project engineers, regulators and other stakeholders.

The overwhelming majority of dams in the world, and also in the United States, are embankment dams. This webinar is intended as an overview of embankment dams, to serve as an introduction for those relatively new to dam safety and a refresher for the more experienced practitioner. The webinar will begin with a review of the history of embankment dams from antiquity to today and comments on today’s inventory of dams. Types of embankment d...

The most common deficiency at dams in North America is inadequate spillway capacity. Inadequate spillway capacity can result in overtopping of a dam during flood events. This is especially a concern for embankment dams where overtopping of the dam embankment can cause breaching of the dam and uncontrolled release of the impounded water. This failure mode accounts for more than 40 percent of recent dam failures. A broad overview of the many app...

At a height of 770 feet, Oroville Dam is the tallest dam in the United States. On February 7, 2017, a section of the concrete chute slab of the service spillway at Oroville Dam failed during spillway discharge. Several days later, as the California Department of Water Resources was evaluating and managing discharges through the damaged service spillway during a large rainfall event, the emergency spillway activated for the first time in the pr...

Communication is important in all aspects of dam safety within an organization, with the public, and with the specific owners or stakeholders of a project. Risk communication and stakeholder participation should ensure that (1) responsible and impacted stakeholders will be partners and be afforded the opportunity to participate in decisions that impact them, and (2) communications regarding potential inundation hazard, consequences, and share...

The purpose of this course is to provide a brief introduction into the science of concrete arch dams. The review will touch on design methods used in the past, but primarily focus on the methods used in the current state of the practice. A historical review of construction techniques will be discussed, and how that relates to evaluations and the physical behavior of the structures. The basic loads and loading conditions used for analysis will...