About Hoover DAM AND its construction.

1. HOOVER dam

2. Why??
• World’s one of the most
powerful and
unpredictable rivers
• Flood vast areas of
California and Arizona.
• Destroyed canals built
for irrigation and
drinkable water.

3. The Phase - I
• 4 Tunnels of 56ft. dia
and 4000 ft. long
• Blasting began. [4
tunnels]
• Conventional Blasting
practices were too slow.
• Approximately half a km
can be drilled in one go.
• 500 drills were used in a
day.
Source : US National Archives and Records Administration

4. Great Depression - Blessing in disguise
• Desperate labour force.
• Unconditional Labour
laws.
• Boulder City.
• First company town
idea.

5. An Arch Gravity Dam [Principles]
• the weight of the
concrete forces the into
the ground due to its
weight
• the arch shape of the
dam deflects the force of
the water into the canyon
walls through the
compression of dam's
concrete walls, using the
compressive strength of
concrete (concrete is very
strong in compression).
Source : US National Archives and Records Administration

6. • A gravity dam requires a large
volume of internal fill. An arch-
gravity dam can be thinner than
the pure gravity dam and requires
less internal fill.
• arch's curved design is so
effective in supporting the water
in narrow, rocky locations where
the gorge's sides are of hard rock
and the water is forced into a
narrow channel. Therefore, the
span needed for the dam is
narrow; the dam's curved design
effectively holds back the water
in the reservoir using a lesser
amount of construction material.
An Arch Gravity Dam [Principles]

7. Concrete Mould and curing
• This dam is too big to
be made in a single
concrete mould. [Still
settling].
• Chemical reactions in
concrete is slow.
• Interlocking blocks
[Mortar]
• Cooling system.

8. • Summer of 1932 recorded
highest heat till date.
• Concrete dry before in
position.
• elaborate overhead
network of cables and
pulleys.
• Full functioning
production line was
created.
Concrete Mould and curing

9. Penstokes Towers [Techniques of
hydropower harnessing]
• Two penstokes tower.
• Vertical hydraulic
turbines.
• magnetic coil system.
• Power grid.
• First technique of it’s
kind of that time.

10. Power Generation
• Two Power Stations. [
Arizona & Navada Side]
• 17 generators each
• Capacity:1,00,000 home
per generators.
• Comparative to two
Nuclear power Stations.

11. Triggered growth of nearby cities.
• Massive surge in
electrical power
transformed the
American SouthWest.
• Las Vegas and Phoenix
became the fastest
growing cites in the
world.