COURSE OBJECTIVES 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 responsib...

Inadequate spillway capacity, significant hydrologic loadings on embankments and structures, and operation and maintenance are common dam safety issues, instigating the need for risk-reduction measures and/or rehabilitation. 3D weirs, or weirs with a crest length greater than the spillway width, are a particularly efficient approach to reduce these concerns. These weirs are also commonly used in new dams and may be useful as levee spillways. I...

Dam failures typically result from interactions of human and physical factors which extend over years or decades. Understandably, engineers and others involved with dams normally focus on the physical factors. However, because physical systems such as dams are subject to physical laws and do not make ‘mistakes’, it may be asserted that dam failures (and incidents) are fundamentally due to human factors. The other side of this coin...

The implementation of a successful dam design is predicated on the construction contractor using acceptable construction means and methods when perform the work and the quality control staff performing timely and through inspections. There are many critical work items associated with dam construction which, if not performed correctly, will lead to poor performance, reduced service life, and contribute to potential failure modes. This webinar...

Understanding how extreme storms and their precipitation are analyzed is critically important for dam design and dam safety. This webinar will detail the background of PMP and storm analysis starting with the earliest work completed by the US Weather Bureau (now National Weather Service) and continuing through current statewide and site-specific PMP work. Data and methods used to quantify rainfall spatially, temporally, and in magnitude will...

Failure mode evaluation or what now is more commonly referred to as potential failure mode analysis (PFMA) for dam safety has become routine practice for many in the profession. The process became more formally organized by the US Bureau of Reclamation in the early to mid 1990’s and gained wider industry exposure in the early 2000’s through the publication of FERC’s Engineering Guidelines, Chapter 14 – Dam Safety Perfor...

This webinar will provide participants with information on the importance of preparing operations and maintenance (O&M) manuals for dams. It will include an overview of some of the key federal agency and state requirements and formats for dam O&M manuals. Operations and maintenance guidelines will be presented for both embankment and concrete dams and key dam appurtenances, such as spillways and outlet works. Many examples will be prov...

This webinar is designed to provide dam and levee owners, and their specialist consultants, an introduction to a comprehensive program to assess and reduce public safety risk around dams, levees and powerhouses. In 2011 the Canadian Dam Association, an association similar in nature to the ASDSO, published “Guidelines for Public Safety Around Dams”. Dam owners across Canada are embracing these Guidelines and are assessing and reduc...

This webinar is the third and final course in the series on Concrete Gravity Dams. The first webinar entitled “Introduction to Concrete Gravity Dams” (July 2012) presented information regarding the types of gravity dams, historic design and construction practices as well as lessons learned from noteworthy gravity dam failures. The second webinar in this series entitled “Stability Evaluations for Concrete Dams” (Oct. 20...

Introduction to Armoring Embankment Dams and Earth-Cut Spillways with ACBs Over the past 23 years numerous embankment dams and earth-cut spillways in the United States have been armored with Articulating Concrete Blocks (ACBs) to provide overtopping protection and to extend the life of the structures. With the current focus on evaluating and rehabilitating dams throughout the United States to pass increased design flows, the use of this const...