BUILDING A £12,000 DAM.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 112, 14 May 1925, Page 10

BUILDING A £12,000 DAM.

ONLY TO WRECK IT. An experimental dam, to be built at a cost of f 12.000, only to be destroyed to test the latest engineering theories in relation to the constant angle arch type, will bo constructed' soon on Stevenson Creek, a tributary to the San Joaquin River, north of Los Angeles. Funds for the work have been provided jointly by Los Angeles county and private interests. The object of the experiment is to obtain data expected to prove of great value in the construction of dams in the Los Angeles county flood control programme, in which approximately £7.000.000 will be spent. On several of those project? the use of the constant angle arch type is anticipated. It, is the theory of many engineers that tho constant angle arch type will permit the use of thinner construction than has been tried heretofore. If true. this would reduce materially the cost of dams. The experimental dam will be 140 ft long and GOft high when the first tests are made. Special instruments will be inserted in the concrete to test stresses, deflections, and temperature changes as the load of water is increased. After this information is obtained, the height of the arch will be run up to 100 ft. The water then will he allowed to rise to the point nt which the dam may be pushed out of position, thus establishing the ultimate resistance of this type of construction.