earth dam construction steps and cost estintes 2

[aldincrump]

i have prepared design of five earth dams to be built in my smalll country Antigua,however i have zero exprience in the construction of any dams .i would like to obtain information on the phases of construction to arrive at a bill of quanties

 

[dgillette]

First of all, get ahold of "Design of Small Dams" by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. You used to be able to get a hardbound copy for next to nothing, but it's now US$65 to download, which is probably easier for you, being in another country.

http://www.ntis.gov/search/product.aspx?ABBR=PB95176368

USBR has other manuals on embankment dams, called Design Standards, which you may be able to get from their library. I don't think you can just download them, but this link will help you get contact info for them:

http://www.usbr.gov/library/

Second, please, please, please get an independent review. Dams kill people, in large part because the details of foundation preparation are easy to overlook or misinterpret. (Google Baldwin Hills Dam and Teton Dam.) With well over 20 years in dam engineering, I wouldn't dream of building one without independent review.

Best regards,
DRG

 

[dgillette]

On the USBR Design Standards, Standard No. 13, Chapters 1 through 13 are relevant to embankment dams. (I would tell you to skip 13 if your area is not seismically active, but it appears it is. See map on p. 65 of this:

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en...epage&q=seismicity dominican republic&f=false

)

Design Std No. 14, Chapters 3 and 4 are for spillways and outlet works.

The US Army Corps of Engineers may have similar publications that you can download.

 

[dgillette]

Two more I left out: DS 13, Chapters 15 and 16 for foundation grouting and cutoff walls.

 

[letrab]

The USACE design manuals are an invaluable resource and can be downloaded.Please take care with your spillways and energy dissipation structures to prevent erosion at the DS toe of the dam.
Design review is essential and this should be done by people with specific experience in disciplines ranging from hydrology to determine the peak discharge and flood volumes, hydraulician to design the spillway and stilling basin, geotechnical engineer to interpret the foundation investigation results and design the embankment, its foundation and the cut-off as well as structural engineer to design the various hydraulic structures.