Generous concrete use stabilizes Sudbury’s new gravity dam

by arslan_ahmed | August 23, 2022 5:12 pm

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A new gravity dam, built as replacement to severely degraded Wabagishik Side Dams A and B in Sudbury, Ontario, utilized more than 6,700 m³ (1,473,794 gal) of concrete to achieve foundational integrity.

“The structural stability of a gravity dam is achieved mainly by its weight from the concrete mass,” explained project manager and EXP water resources and dam engineer Mauricio Del Olmo Gil. “The Wabagishik Dam was entirely founded on bedrock and needed more than 6,700 m³ of concrete to give stability. Our team collected 191 sets of five concrete cylinders for the entire dam, which were tested for compressive strength at our materials laboratory in Sudbury.”

Wabagishik Side Dams A and B, owned by Vale Canada Ltd., serve a crucial function for the mining company’s Wabagishik Power Plant on Ella Lake (Vermillion River). When several reviews revealed the poor infrastructure conditions of the previous dams, and the inability of their freeboards to allow successful future headpond operations, Vale opted for rehabilitation by constructing a new dam on a site downstream from the existing dams.

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EXP’s Earth & Environmental and Infrastructure groups provided dam, structural, geotechnical, and environmental engineering services. They also supplied issued for construction (IFC) drawings for the access roads, crane pads, dam foundation slab and rock treatment, concrete gravity dam and details, sediment and erosion control plans, water management during construction, and final demolition activities.

During construction and demolition activities, EXP worked in partnership with the contractor Cecchetto & Sons Ltd. to deliver full-time supervision and quality assurance and lend engineering support. At the project’s closing, the company submitted the As-Built Report and the corresponding drawings.

Source URL: https://www.constructioncanada.net/generous-concrete-use-stabilizes-sudburys-new-gravity-dam/

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