Alternative Title
Paper No. 2.20
Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Date
10 Mar 1998, 2:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Abstract
The upper reservoir of the Turlough Hill pumped storage station was commissioned by the Irish Electricity Supply Board in 1974. This upper reservoir comprises a rockfill embankment within which there is a useful capacity of 2.3 million cubic metres. It was constructed in difficult conditions on a very isolated and exposed site at the top of a mountain, using rockfill derived from the local granitic bedrock. The reservoir is lined with asphaltic concrete.
The paper describes briefly the design and construction of the embankment. It then summarises the results of monitoring and inspecting, with particular emphasis on movement, seepage and on the performance of the asphaltic concrete lining.
The reservoir has performed very well in its 23 years of service to date. Some early seepage problems were found to be due to an isolated defect in the lining. In recent times a slight increase in the quantity of measured seepage has been noted. The amount of seepage is small and is most likely due to the natural aging of the bitumen in the lining system on exposure to sunlight. The paper illustrates how most of the problems are located on the sides of the reservoir, which are exposed to the evening sun.
The paper will conclude with a summary of the measures being adopted to ensure the continued good performance of the reservoir into the next century.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
4th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1998 University of Missouri--Rolla, 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
Long, Michael and Godden, John, "The Performance of Turlough Hill Upper Reservoir" (1998). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 15.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/4icchge/4icchge-session02/15
The Performance of Turlough Hill Upper Reservoir
St. Louis, Missouri
The upper reservoir of the Turlough Hill pumped storage station was commissioned by the Irish Electricity Supply Board in 1974. This upper reservoir comprises a rockfill embankment within which there is a useful capacity of 2.3 million cubic metres. It was constructed in difficult conditions on a very isolated and exposed site at the top of a mountain, using rockfill derived from the local granitic bedrock. The reservoir is lined with asphaltic concrete.
The paper describes briefly the design and construction of the embankment. It then summarises the results of monitoring and inspecting, with particular emphasis on movement, seepage and on the performance of the asphaltic concrete lining.
The reservoir has performed very well in its 23 years of service to date. Some early seepage problems were found to be due to an isolated defect in the lining. In recent times a slight increase in the quantity of measured seepage has been noted. The amount of seepage is small and is most likely due to the natural aging of the bitumen in the lining system on exposure to sunlight. The paper illustrates how most of the problems are located on the sides of the reservoir, which are exposed to the evening sun.
The paper will conclude with a summary of the measures being adopted to ensure the continued good performance of the reservoir into the next century.
