Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Date
08 May 1984, 8:00 am - 10:00 am
Abstract
Late in the summer of 1980, the dam for Snowbird Lake in Forestport, New York, U.S.A., experienced a serious foundation leak made evident by a suddenly erupting geyser near the downstream toe. Subsequent investigation indicated that a severe piping condition had occurred in the soil foundation. Some degree of erosion had effected the foundation earth for more than half of the dam length. Repairs were performed after dewatering the dam work area. The original dam was retained but provided with a new concrete foundation which included a constructed underdrain. A clay blanket was installed on the dam's upstream side to retard future underdam seepage. An emergency spillway circumventing the dam area was established to protect the dam abutments from being topped should the lake reach flood levels.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
1st Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1984 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
McCarthy, David F., "Failure of a Small Gravity Dam and the Repair" (1984). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 51.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/1icchge/1icchge-theme2/51
Failure of a Small Gravity Dam and the Repair
St. Louis, Missouri
Late in the summer of 1980, the dam for Snowbird Lake in Forestport, New York, U.S.A., experienced a serious foundation leak made evident by a suddenly erupting geyser near the downstream toe. Subsequent investigation indicated that a severe piping condition had occurred in the soil foundation. Some degree of erosion had effected the foundation earth for more than half of the dam length. Repairs were performed after dewatering the dam work area. The original dam was retained but provided with a new concrete foundation which included a constructed underdrain. A clay blanket was installed on the dam's upstream side to retard future underdam seepage. An emergency spillway circumventing the dam area was established to protect the dam abutments from being topped should the lake reach flood levels.
