Teton dam
The Teton was an earthen dam built by the federal government on Teton River in Idaho. It was built by the bureau of reclamation, which had previously constructed many dams including earth fill dam like the Teton dam. The dam was constructed at a cost of one hundred million U.S. dollars. It was built from nineteen seventy-five and collapse during the initial filling up releasing millions of cubic meters of water into the Snake River. This water flood the farmland below, industries, residences and the towns that were down stream. It resulted to fourteen deaths and property damages estimated to be between four hundred million dollars and one billion U. S. dollars. The quality of the rock surrounding the canyon was fractured hence the engineers found ways to seal these fixtures and ensure no water would seep into the dam resulting to a failure. Teton dam was filled with grout in trenches cut seventy feet deep to seal any cracks in the crayon walls. In addition, grout was pumped into the canyons floor in a single row on the embankment where the dam would be. This resulted to an impermeable barrier that would have prevented water from sipping into the rock and finding its way to the dams face. Despite all this measures, the dam failed the first time it was filled with water when it was about to reach the maximum capacity.
The dam should not have been constructed given the vulnerability of the canyon wall surrounding the dam without further analysis of the canyon. The bureau of reclamation should have taken time to investigate and come up with several measures that would have solved the cracks in the crayons instead of implementing one measure. If enough time were taken different measures would have been incorporated together with grout curtains to offer a stronger impermeable wall. Not all problems can be overcome with more engineering as was the case in the Teton dam but with proper technology employed the problem can be prevented. All problems can be overcome with more technology if the proper measurements and new measures are employed rather than rely on the measures that have been used previously. The bureau should have used other methods or incorporated them with the grout curtains to solve the problem of the fissured rock. This is because the rock was more vulnerable than in other sites that they had encountered.
The engineers should provide ways to ensure that the water that leaks and sips around these structures has a way out to control any damage that may arise in future. The engineers should create outlets to prevent catastrophic damage. The instrumentation should be of the highest quality to ensure that an excellent job is done and the machines should be enough to avoid use of substandard machinery. The monitoring should be carried out every step of the way and should be often to avoid completing a substandard project because enough monitoring was not carried out. The accident should be classified as engineered and procedural since from the beginning the rock was cracked and vulnerable. Procedural because the relevant authority waited till the last hour to notify the people of the serious danger that the dam was about to cause.
Considerations flowchart
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They went wrong in choosing the method of strengthening the cracked rock on the canyon walls that rendered the dam weak. The method they chose lead to the failure of the dam because water managed to leak and sip through the grout curtains.
The dam should not have been constructed without exploring the different methods of strengthening the cracked rock even though the method used had been successful in the past. The bureau of reclamation should have taken the time to explore other methods and should have used quality silt to fill the trenches and cores to prevent erosion. They should have routinely tested the dam throughout construction to avoid a damage of this magnitude, in addition the outlet and the spillways should have been in working conditions before the dam started filling up to avoid an overflow.
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