INSTRUCTOR: Wayne A. Ericson, P.E., PG, F.ASCE

Course Length:  1 hour

Purpose and Background

The webinar presents the key elements of typical earth dam and spillway construction as they relate to visual inspections by dam owners, public safety officials and third-party engineers. These inspections are often required by State dam safety regulations on a regular basis as part of permitting and continue operations. The types of dams and their typical inspection practices to be discussed include earth dams for mine tailings disposal, earth dams for fly ash or other industrial waste disposal and earth dams used for water storage.

This webinar provides a refresher for geotechnical and water resource engineers that are familiar with earth dam inspections. It also provides information to dam owners, operators and safety personnel that do or have inspections done by others concerning the key elements of the dams and outlet structures that should be observed and documented as part of an inspection.

Primary Discussion Topics

• Key elements of a typical earth dam, outlet works and emergency spillway
• Summary of typical state dam safety regulations as they pertain to dam inspections
• Typical basic qualifications of dam inspectors
• The basic methods of inspecting earth dams for typical operating conditions
• Methods for identifying conditions that can affect the performance of an earth dam, outlet works, or spillway
• The typical conditions that can affect an earth dam that will be reviewed include
• Cracking of the dam crest and slopes
• Slope movement (such slumping or sliding)
• Toe or slope seepage
• Vegetation on the dam surface
• Animal burrows in the dam
• Erosion of the dam
• Abutment areas and spillway surfaces
• Outlet works piping (internal erosion around the pipes)
• Vegetation control in emergency spillways
• Basic action planning criteria for conditions found during inspection; regular maintenance, scheduled maintenance or repairs or emergency maintenance

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Show the inspection process and list the typical state requirements for dam inspections
• Explain to dam owners and/or operators typical dam inspection elements and action planning for critical, short-term remediation
• Present a typical dam inspection reporting form

Webinar Benefits

• Provide a refresher for dam inspection engineers
• Introduce the dam inspection process to entry level engineers planning to be involved in earth dam construction and inspection
• Provide dam owners and safety personnel with key elements for operating and maintaining an earth dam
• Help dam inspection engineers and dam owners identify regular maintenance versus emergency maintenance conditions

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

• Geotechnical engineers involved in earth dam design, construction QA and inspection
• Water resource civil engineers involved in water storage and routing projects
• Mining and industrial engineers involved with mine waste or industrial waste disposal behind earth dams

Webinar Outline

• The key elements of a typical earth dam, outlet works and emergency spillway
• Summary of typical State dam safety regulations as they pertain to dam inspections
• Typical basic qualifications of dam inspectors
• The basic methods of inspecting earth dams for typical operating conditions
• Methods for identifying conditions that can affect the performance of an earth dam, outlet works or spillway
• The typical conditions that can affect an earth dam
• Basic action planning criteria for conditions found during inspection
• Maintenance and repair prioritization based on the inspection