Location
New York, New York
Date
15 Apr 2004, 1:00pm - 2:45pm
Abstract
Lake Storey Embankment Dam originally built in 1929 to provide water for steam locomotives. This 133-acre public lake is located near Galesburg in Knox County, Illinois. The dam is a zoned embankment (with clay cores on each side of a concrete core wall, 12 inches thick), 51 ft high above the streambed, approximately 850 ft long, with a concrete free ogee spillway. Numerous minor to moderate damaged spots including a moderate size downstream slope failure have been detected during the dam inspection of Year 2000. This paper discusses the results of the investigation to identify the problems and the proposed solutions to improve the dam safety. In authors’ opinion, the failed slopes resulted from decomposition of the roots of several grown trees previously cut-down. Dealing with grown trees on embankment dams has been an environmental and safety challenge on other embankment dams nationwide. A new idea is proposed for similar situations to avoid introduction of risk of piping or slope failure due to root decomposition, if the trees on the dam or abutments are already mature. An occasionally wet downstream toe was another concern on the Lake Storey Dam. A stage construction of dam modification, and a new drainage system at the downstream toe (also serving as a shear key), are designed and are under construction at the moment. This system is expected to improve the shear strength and reduce the piping/slope failure potential by safely collecting the seepage water.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
5th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2004 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
Oskoorouchi, Ali M. and Lane, Philip J., "Slope Failure and Piping Potential Due to Root Decomposition in an Aged Embankment Dam" (2004). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 28.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/5icchge/session02/28
Slope Failure and Piping Potential Due to Root Decomposition in an Aged Embankment Dam
New York, New York
Lake Storey Embankment Dam originally built in 1929 to provide water for steam locomotives. This 133-acre public lake is located near Galesburg in Knox County, Illinois. The dam is a zoned embankment (with clay cores on each side of a concrete core wall, 12 inches thick), 51 ft high above the streambed, approximately 850 ft long, with a concrete free ogee spillway. Numerous minor to moderate damaged spots including a moderate size downstream slope failure have been detected during the dam inspection of Year 2000. This paper discusses the results of the investigation to identify the problems and the proposed solutions to improve the dam safety. In authors’ opinion, the failed slopes resulted from decomposition of the roots of several grown trees previously cut-down. Dealing with grown trees on embankment dams has been an environmental and safety challenge on other embankment dams nationwide. A new idea is proposed for similar situations to avoid introduction of risk of piping or slope failure due to root decomposition, if the trees on the dam or abutments are already mature. An occasionally wet downstream toe was another concern on the Lake Storey Dam. A stage construction of dam modification, and a new drainage system at the downstream toe (also serving as a shear key), are designed and are under construction at the moment. This system is expected to improve the shear strength and reduce the piping/slope failure potential by safely collecting the seepage water.
