Inspection & Assessment of Dams

This seminar provides comprehensive instruction in inspection and evaluation techniques for dams. The principles, concepts and procedures taught will be readily adaptable to any organization conducting dam inspections and evaluating their compliance with current design standards. The target audience is state and federal dam owners/regulators, local and private dam owners/operators, consulting engineers and personnel responsible for the operation and maintenance of dams. Participants learn about a variety of dam types and their appurtenances, the function of typical dam features, and common dam failure modes and the conditions that can lead to these failure modes. Actual dam failure cases will be presented. Public safety, security, and liability will also be discussed along with approaches to responding to dam incidents.

Students will learn about:

1. Historical perspective of dam construction methods for various dam types
2. Common failure modes associated with various dam types
3. Understanding of standards for maintaining dams
4. Techniques for performing a comprehensive dam inspection
5. Awareness of emerging issues related to inspection and assessment of dams

There are no specific education or experience prerequisites for this course, although some knowledge/experience in dam safety would be beneficial.

Course Materials

Course materials will be produced on DVD. The Workshop DVD will include copies of the presentation slides, plus several helpful references including FEMA Technical Manuals, including:

Impacts of Animals on Earthen Dams
Impacts of Plants on Earthen Dams
Conduits Through Embankment Dams
Best Practices
Filters for Embankment Dams
FEMA P-919 – Summary of Existing Guidelines for Hydrologic Safety of Dams;
plus a number of internet URLs for sites where additional information can be found.

What to Bring

Attendees interested in participating in the visit to local dams to practice inspection techniques should bring appropriate outdoor apparel. Personal protection equipment (hard hat, steel toed boots, etc) is not required for this field tour.

Continuing Education

This technical seminar contains up to 22 hours of classroom instruction. Forms for the documentation of PDH credits will be provided to all registered attendees. NOTE: This Technical Seminar is also approved for credit to satisfy mandatory continuing education requirements for Professional Engineers licensed in New York State. The course is classified as CE Training and participants who complete the course and the assessment quizzes will receive a certificate for up to 19 professional development hours (PDHs).

Questions

Call Jennifer Burns, ASDSO, at (859) 550-2788 or email info@damsafety.org.

Class size is limited, so please register early.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Paul G. Schweiger, P.E.

Vice President, Gannett Fleming, Inc.
Paul currently serves as a Vice President of Gannett Fleming and Manager of the Firm’s Dams and Hydraulics Section in Camp Hill. He has over 30 years of consulting engineering experience and has served as a project engineer or manager for the design of eleven new dams, including four NRCS dams, and the design and technical review of many dam rehabilitation projects. He has inspected hundreds of dams across the nation including completing over 100 dam assessment reports for the NRCS. Paul isan approved FERC facilitator for performing potential failure modes analysis exercises for dams, and serves as an expert hydrology and hydraulics engineer on Independent External Peer Review panels for several United States Army Corps of Engineers dam and flood control projects.

Dean B. Durkee, Ph.D., P.E.

Vice President, Gannett Fleming, Inc.
Dean is a Vice President and West Regional Director of Earth Science and Hydraulics for Gannett Fleming. He has over twenty years of engineering experience as a geotechnical and dam safety engineer, working primarily on dam and flood control projects, applying his expertise to assessment, planning, design, and construction phase services for rehabilitation and modification of earth embankment dams, flood control dams, and levees. Dean is a member of ASDSO and USSD and serves on the USSD Board of Directors and the Committee for Dam Safety. He serves on the ASDSO Peer Review Committee and is an Instructor for ASDSO’s Dam Owner Training Program.

Gene Peters

President, Performance Plus
Gene is the President of Performance Plus is a frequent speaker and demonstrator at NRCS watershed operation and maintenance workshops, and has been participating in NRCS workshops since 1995. He was a Conservation Director for 10 years overseeing flood control dams. Mr. Peters specializes in repairing NRCS riser structures including gate operators, gate stems and gate replacement. He also performs underwater inspections and repairs, ROV conduit inspections, and conduit slip lining and concrete repairs. Performance Plus has received awards for their specialized equipment and repair facilities.

Relevant Government Agencies

Army, Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Energy, Dept of the Interior, Dept of State, Other Federal Agencies, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, FEMA, Federal Government, State & Local Government