A non-technical primer
on dam design.
Or why the North Spur
dam design needs to be reviewed.
Guest Post by Jim Gordon. P. Eng. (Retired)
In view of the controversy over the North Spur dam design, I have prepared the following brief review of dam design
over the ages, to show why the North Spur dam design needs to be reviewed.
Dams have been built for more than
5,000 years, with the first recorded being the Jawa dam in Jordan built about
3,000 BC. Another was the Sadd al-Kafara dam near Cairo, built about 2,850BC. It
had a height of 11m and a crest length of 81m.
The highest ancient dam was
built by the Romans in the first century at Subiaco, near Rome, having a height
of 50m.
