Location
Chicago, Illinois
Date
01 May 2013, 5:15 pm - 6:45 pm
Abstract
Wolf Creek Dam was designed and constructed between 1932 and 1952. The approximate 1 mile long combination concrete gravity and earth fill structure is located on the Cumberland River near Jamestown, KY and stores up to six million ac-ft at the maximum flood pool storage level. In 1967-1968, seepage in the foundation of the embankment section was evidenced by sinkholes and muddy flows identified on the downstream side of the dam and Instruments identified seepage through the dam foundation. A concrete barrier wall was constructed in 1975-1979, however dam monitoring in 2004 indicated that seepage persisted through the foundation. Currently, a new barrier wall is under construction to penetrate deeper into the foundation than the previous barrier. Additional instrumentation was installed to monitor construction and ensure the new barrier wall is effective. The purpose of this paper is to document the history of Wolf Creek Dam, the current barrier wall construction, and the extensive instrumentation monitoring implemented throughout the project life. In addition, the paper will highlight common instrumentation data errors, their implications, and ways to identify and prevent them in future projects.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
7th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2013 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
Hlepas, Georgette and Walker, W. G., "Wolf Creek Dam: Instrumentation & Monitoring" (2013). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 15.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/7icchge/session_07/15
Wolf Creek Dam: Instrumentation & Monitoring
Chicago, Illinois
Wolf Creek Dam was designed and constructed between 1932 and 1952. The approximate 1 mile long combination concrete gravity and earth fill structure is located on the Cumberland River near Jamestown, KY and stores up to six million ac-ft at the maximum flood pool storage level. In 1967-1968, seepage in the foundation of the embankment section was evidenced by sinkholes and muddy flows identified on the downstream side of the dam and Instruments identified seepage through the dam foundation. A concrete barrier wall was constructed in 1975-1979, however dam monitoring in 2004 indicated that seepage persisted through the foundation. Currently, a new barrier wall is under construction to penetrate deeper into the foundation than the previous barrier. Additional instrumentation was installed to monitor construction and ensure the new barrier wall is effective. The purpose of this paper is to document the history of Wolf Creek Dam, the current barrier wall construction, and the extensive instrumentation monitoring implemented throughout the project life. In addition, the paper will highlight common instrumentation data errors, their implications, and ways to identify and prevent them in future projects.
