History of the steel dams - School of Civil Engineering

A Brief History of Steel Dams
by Hubert CHANSON ()
M.E., ENSHM Grenoble, INSTN, PhD (Cant.), DEng (Qld), Eur.Ing., MIEAust., MIAHR
Dept. of Civil Engrg., Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane QLD , Autralia

At the end of the 19th century, the rapid expansion of the new worlds was associated with an increasing need for water resources. This lead to the use of new dam construction material. In Australia, concrete was adopted as early as : i.e., Lower Stony Creek dam, Geelong (Victoria). In North-America, three unusual dams were built in steel : three steel dams (1).

Goto IWHR to know more.

Built between 7 Oct. and 5 March , the Steel dam or Ashfork dam was designed by F.H. BAINBRIDGE (2). The steel dam wall is 14-m high and 56.1 m long, with two masonry abutments (total dam length : 91.4 m). The steel structure was anchored into the rock foundation. Located 70-km West of Flagstaff (Arizona), the reservoir was built originally as a water supply for railroad. It was still used in the late s for stockwater. Today the dam is still standing although disused. Note that the spillway was the dam crest itself : i.e., the entire steel dam was an overflow structure. The dam was built at a cost of $45,800 (SCHUYLER ). Note that F.H. BAINBRIDGE was from Chicago. His work influenced J.F. JACKSON and hence the constructions of the Redridge and Lake Hauser dams.

The Redridge dam was designed by J.F. JACKSON whose company built the Ashfork dam. Construction started in June . Completed in , the Redridge dam is still standing. Located 20-km North of Houghton (Michigan), the 22.6-m high 141-m long dam was a water supply for stamp mills. The steel structure rests on concrete foundation. A railroad was built above the dam crest, using the dam foundation as support. The reservoir level was  full up to when four large openings were made to relieve water pressure on the dam wall (3).

Built between and , the Lake Hauser dam was 24.7-m high and 192-m long. It was designed by J.F. JACKSON. The dam foundation was washed away on 14 April and a new concrete gravity dam was rebuilt from to . The dam site is located 24-km North of Helena (Montana).

At the time of construction, the steel dam design was significantly cheaper to build than masonry structures. The long-lasting records of Ashfork and Redridge dams demonstrated the design soundness as well as durability and low maintenance costs (REYNOLDS ). Nevertheless no new steel dam was built after (4).

Footnotes

(1) The term 'steel dam' is used for a steel fixed dam wall by opposition to a movable steel dam and barrage.
(2) the dam was designed by Francis H. BAINBRIDGE in collaboration with James DUN, Chief Engineer and A.F. ROBINSON, Bridge engineer of the Santa Fe system of railroads (WEGMANN ).
(3) In , a timber weir was built upstream of the present dam location, but it was inadequate by when the decision to build the steel dam was taken (Redridge dam, Photo No. 3). The steel dam raised the water level and submerged the wood dam. In , 4 holes were cut into the steel dam and the old wooden weir is now visible.
(4) In Francis BAINBRIDGE designed a 64-m high steel dam to be built across the Santa Ana river (Cal.). The design was patented in but it was never built (REYNOLDS ).

Photographs

(1) Ashfork dam - Photo No. 1 : view from downstream (Courtesy of  Stephanie YARD, USDA).
(2) Ashfork dam - Photo No. 2 : detail of the steel structure (Courtesy of  Stephanie YARD, USDA).
(3) Ashfork dam - Photo No. 3 : connection steel dam/masonry abutment (Courtesy of  Stephanie YARD, USDA).
(4) Redridge dam - Photo No. 1 : view from upstream on 15 Dec. (Courtesy of Cindy MILLER).
(5) Redridge dam - Photo No. 2 : view from upstream on 15 Dec. (Courtesy of Cindy MILLER).
(6) Redridge dam - Photo No. 3 : old timber crib weir upstream of the dam (Courtesy of Cindy MILLER). Completed in , the dam was 16.1 m thick at base, 8.5 m thick at crest and 15.2 m high.

Related links

Gallery of photographs : {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/photo.html#Historical structures}
Redridge dam: {http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean//redweb04.htm} {http://www.admin.mtu.edu/alumni/cruisin/redridge/pages/steel-dam.htm} {http://www.copperrange.org/redridge.htm}

References

REYNOLDS, T.S. (). "A Narrow Window of Opportunity: the Rise and Fall of the Fixed Steel Dam." Jl Soc. for Industrial Archaeology, Vol. 15, pp. 1-20.
SCHNITTER, N.J. (). "A History of Dams : the Useful Pyramids." Balkema Publ., Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
SCHUYLER, J.D. (). "Reservoirs for Irrigation, Water-Power and Domestic Water Supply." John Wiley & Sons, 2nd edition, New York, USA.
WEGMANN, E. (). "The Design and Construction of Dams." John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA, 7th edition.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to John WEAVER and Stephanie YARD (USDA-NRCS, Phoenix, Arizona) for alerting the writer to these unusual structures. Thanks also to Cindy MILLER for information on Redridge dam. Photographs courtesy of Stephanie YARD and Cindy MILLER.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

Hubert CHANSON is a Professor in Civil Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering and Environmental Fluid Mechanics, at the University of Queeensland, Australia. His research interests include design of hydraulic structures, experimental investigations of two-phase flows, applied hydrodynamics, hydraulic engineering, water quality modelling, environmental fluid mechanics, estuarine processes and natural resources. He has been an active consultant for both governmental agencies and private organisations. His publication record includes over 600 international refereed papers and his work was cited over 3,500 times since . Hubert Chanson is the author of several books : "Hydraulic Design of Stepped Cascades, Channels, Weirs and Spillways" (Pergamon, ), "Air Bubble Entrainment in Free-Surface Turbulent Shear Flows" (Academic Press, ), "The Hydraulics of Open Channel Flow : An Introduction" (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1st edition , 2nd editon ), "The Hydraulics of Stepped Chutes and Spillways" (Balkema, ), "Environmental Hydraulics of Open Channel Flows" (Butterworth-Heinemann, ), "Applied Hydrodynamics: an Introduction of Ideal and Real Fluid Flows" (CRC Press, ), and "Tidal Bores, Aegir, Eagre, Mascaret, Pororoca: Theory And Observations" (World Scientific, ). He co-authored two further books "Fluid Mechanics for Ecologists" (IPC Press, ) and "Fluid Mechanics for Ecologists. Student Edition" (IPC, ). His textbook "The Hydraulics of Open Channel Flows : An Introduction" has already been translated into Spanish (McGraw-Hill Interamericana) and Chinese (Hydrology Bureau of Yellow River Conservancy Committee), and the second edition was published in . In , the IAHR presented him with the 13th Arthur Ippen Award for outstanding achievements in hydraulic engineering. The American Society of Civil Engineers, Environmental and Water Resources Institute (ASCE-EWRI) presented him with the award for the Best Practice paper in the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering ("Energy Dissipation and Air Entrainment in Stepped Storm Waterway" by Chanson and Toombes ). Hubert Chanson edited further several books : "Fluvial, Environmental and Coastal Developments in Hydraulic Engineering" (Mossa, Yasuda & Chanson , Balkema), "Hydraulics. The Next Wave" (Chanson & Macintosh , Engineers Australia), "Hydraulic Structures: a Challenge to Engineers and Researchers" (Matos & Chanson , The University of Queensland), "Experiences and Challenges in Sewers: Measurements and Hydrodynamics" (Larrate & Chanson , The University of Queensland), "Hydraulic Structures: Useful Water Harvesting Systems or Relics?" (Janssen & Chanson , The University of Queensland), "Balance and Uncertainty: Water in a Changing World" (Valentine et al. , Engineers Australia). He chaired the Organisation of the 34th IAHR World Congress held in Brisbane, Australia between 26 June and 1 July .
 His Internet home page is http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans. He also developed a gallery of photographs website {http://www.uq.edu.au/~e2hchans/photo.html} that received more than 2,000 hits per month since inception.

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A steel dam near Ash Fork in Arizona’s high desert still holds water after more than a century. It’s a relic of a short-lived era in American history, when dam builders thought steel could replace stone.

The Santa Fe Pacific Railroad constructed the dam in to supply water to its steam boilers. A Chicago engineer named F.H. Bainbridge proposed it be made of steel—the first of its kind in the nation. Bainbridge believed steel could make dams cheaper and more efficient. Prices had dropped to an all-time low, and prefabricated beams and plates could be easily hauled to rugged locations.

Workers constructed the nearly 50-foot-high dam in Johnson Canyon. Overlapping steel plates curved upstream, so the weight of the water would help keep the foundation stable.

A four-mile-long pipeline brought the water from the 36-million-gallon reservoir to Ash Fork. It supplied not only the railroad company but also the town’s fire hydrants.  

It seemed like the start of a new era in dam building. Steel dams went up in Michigan and Montana. But Montana’s dam broke after just one year due to a faulty foundation, and engineers began to fear the structures wouldn’t last. They had a frail, flimsy appearance compared to massive masonry dams.

In the end, tradition triumphed over innovation. No more steel dams went up after . But the Ash Fork Dam is still in use by ranchers today. It proved, too late, that steel could stand the test of time. Hikers can find it at the end of the Stone to Steel Trail on the Kaibab National Forest.