Seepage Through Earth Dams


This event qualifies for 18 PDH


To protect the health and safety of attendees, this event has been moved to online-only due to COVID-19 concerns. 

 

This 2.5-day introductory course is designed to be a participatory, interactive workshop, which will cover the basic elements required to understand and evaluate seepage-related issues for earth dams. The first day begins with providing an understanding of why seepage mechanisms in earth dams are important to dam safety. Discussions of basic principles and characteristics of seepage related to embankment dams, various modes of seepage, and computational methods for evaluating seepage will then be presented. The second day focuses on methods of investigating, controlling, and remediating dam seepage. Hands-on exercises will represent real-world, practical applications pertinent to the attendees. The final half day will include a hands-on, introductory session of the SEEP/W computer program to demonstrate computational analysis of a hypothetical seepage scenario.

 

Learning objectives attendees will receive from this course:

  • Why understanding seepage mechanisms in earth dams is important to dam safety
  • Principles and characteristics of seepage related to embankment dams, including review of potential seepage-related failure modes and their common initiators or triggers
  • Computational methods for evaluating seepage
  • Understanding theory, application, and design of filters
  • Methods of investigating, monitoring, controlling, and remediating seepage problems in existing dams using case histories and hands-on exercises to enforce understanding of practical applications

Speaker and Presenter Information

 

John France, PE, D.GE, D.WRE
President
JWF Consulting LLC

Mr. John France is a registered professional engineer. He received BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Cornell University. Mr. France has 43 years of consulting engineering experience, during which time he has worked on hundreds of civil engineering projects. For the past 35 years, his professional career has been focused on dam engineering and dam safety services. During his career, Mr. France has been involved in various capacities in evaluating and remediating seepage issues for earth dams. He has written numerous papers on the topic, and in 2012 he was an invited speaker at a FEMA workshop on filters and seepage remediation. He was also engaged by the Montana Dam Safety office to prepare a technical note on chimney filter design for posting on the State’s website. Together with Jennifer Williams he has presented workshops on internal erosion failure modes for ASDSO and the States of Colorado and Wyoming.

 

John Cyganiewicz, PE
Cyganiewicz Geotechnical, LLC

Mr. John Cyganiewicz is a registered professional engineer with 40 years of engineering experience specializing in the dam safety practice. He received his BS degree at the University of Rhode Island and has completed graduate level studies at the University of Rhode Island, University of Colorado, and the University of California – Berkeley. Mr. Cyganiewicz retired in 2008 from a 32-year career at the Bureau of Reclamation and has continued to work as a consultant for several dam safety rehabilitation projects. Mr. Cyganiewicz was a leader in developing Reclamation’s risk analysis methodology with a specialization in seepage and piping issues for embankment dams and in the development of a tool box compiled to provide guidance in seepage and piping risk analyses. As an invited speaker, Mr. Cyganiewicz has made numerous presentations at technical meetings of various professional societies including ASDSO, USSD, NZCOLD, ANCOLD, and ICOLD. The presentations focused on design and construction of embankment dams, seepage and piping related issues, and risk analysis with a specialty in seepage and piping.

 

Jennifer Williams, P.E.
Project Manager
AECOM

Jennifer Williams is a registered professional engineer with over 20 years of experience specializing in geotechnical design and analyses of earth dams. Ms. Williams is currently one of the managers within the AECOM dams group in the Denver office. She received her BS degree in civil engineering from Colorado School of Mines and MS degree in civil/geotechnical engineering from University of Colorado. Ms. Williams has provided dam safety engineering services including inspection, analysis, design, and risk assessment to Reclamation, the USACE, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the NRCS, and several private dam owner and operators. Ms. Williams has presented numerous technical presentations at ASDSO and USSD. Together with John France she has presented workshops on internal erosion failure modes and seepage response for ASDSO and the States of Colorado, Wyoming, and Hawaii.

 

Relevant Government Agencies

Army, Dept of Energy, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of the Interior, Other Federal Agencies, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, FEMA, Federal Government, State & Local Government, Foreign Governments/Agencies


Event Type
Virtual


This event has no exhibitor/sponsor opportunities


When
Tue-Thu, Jun 23-25, 2020


Website
Click here to visit event website


Organizer
Association of State Dam Safety Officials


Contact Event Organizer



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