Research Project: Safety in Dam Construction Zones
Being that there are 36,000 dam projects listed in the world register of dams and having statistics associate 300 accidents to the said dams, the information was quite alarming to safety officials and the construction authorities. In previous years the safety precautions were on largely concentrated on the structures but as time went by accidents increased from the beginning of dam construction to date. There has proven to be need for better safety precaution to the human workforce at the sites. This entails looking at the specifics into the type of accidents that occur at the site. It also involves determining or predicting the type of accidents that are expected to happen at such sites. This will lead to a comprehensive study of safety precautions, risk assessment, first aid and other measures that will be required to curb the problem. This means looking at global safety cultural assessments and narrowing them down to dam construction related accident prevention and control.
Research Questions
This research will aim to identify the various causes of dam failure. Through an explorative research, the main core of the research will dwell to answer concerns on dam failure. Are dam failures caused by human influence? If so, what influence causes or leads to dam failure? How were the causes identified? In what ways have the government and related organizations made sure that the issues are addressed? In what ways have the government and other organizations ensured that the causes of dam failures are addressed and preventative measures taken as far as human influences are concerned? What roles does the natural environment present in the causes of dam failures? What measures of preparedness are taken to ensure that the dams can resist even the worst forces of nature? What are the causes of fatalities for people surrounding the dams? What are the causes of death and ailments to people working in the dams and what precautionary measures are taken to prevent such measures? What sort of surveys methods has been used to acquire the data (surveys, questionnaires, observation or sampling)? The study will limit to structural causes, human influences and nature (ICOLD, 2016).
Background Research
Distress in structures is the major cause of accidents during and after construction. Therefore, before, during and after constructions of structures especially huge structures like dams, skyscrapers, bridges and other massive structures, there is a team of engineers checking on the loading, environmental and human influences affecting the structures to prevent failure of structures. However, much emphasis was placed on human life and in other structures except dams due to the nature of their constructions. This resulted in massive accidents that led to deaths and injured many with the current statistics standing at over 300 accidents for just 36,000 dams globally. The most concerns in dams were the overall monetary losses that would occur in the event the structures failed. Thus many funds and concern went into rehabilitation and repairs of the dams during and after constructions centering around the damaging effects on the structures (ASDSO, 2016).
While the Panama Canal is one of the greatest engineering achievements in the history of engineering marking a hundred years in 2014, it claimed the largest death toll recorded in the history if dam constructions. It was referred to as the greatest human sacrifice. There was a reported death toll of 30,609 lives with the first 25,000 dying of fever and malaria in 1884 during the French management and the rest 5,609 dying during the U.S. management due to diseases and construction accidents in 1904. Most of the men were natives with only 305 people being U.S. citizens (ASDSO, 2016).
Hundreds of damages have occurred in the history of the United States of America (U.S.A) and the following damages were catastrophic ranging from property and environmental damages. All these resulted in massive deaths. With the increase in the use of technology and creation of more dams, the rise for risks caused by the same increases rapidly. From January 2005 to June 2013, an estimated 173 dams have failed and caused an estimated 587 incidents which without interventions from various risk management and control organizations would have resulted in a huge number of incidents. The largest dam failure was the New Orleans Levees failure that was caused by the hurricane Katrina. Previous failures had occurred at the same place but hadn’t caused intensive damage as the Katrina-related failure.
Other catastrophes that have resulted due to dam failure include the 7:20 am, May 16, 1874, Mill River Dam failure in Williamsburg Massachusetts. It failed and caused a death toll of 138 lives which was recorded as the worst accident at the time. Later one in 1989, May 31st the same scenario occurs in Pennsylvania where the South Fork Dam failed and claimed more than 2200 lives nine miles upstream, which is five times the population of five residents in Johnstown. This was the worst recorded dam failure yet. There has been a reporting of many more failures in Arizona, Tennessee, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and other places across the states. In 1928, the state Francis dam failed claiming the landmark History of failed dams in California and other states as well. This created concern in the United States and other global countries as well as at the time, there had no safety rules or laws governing the setting up or construction and maintenance of the dams. This, therefore, resulted in further incidents like February 26, 1972, Buffalo Creek Valley, West Virginia dam failing that claimed 125 lives and resulted in over $400million in damages. It also destroyed over 500 homes (ASDSO, 2016).
In the same year, June 9, the Rapid City, South Dakota dam failure claimed (estimated 33-237) lives, destroyed over 1335 homes and caused losses recorded to over $60 million dollars. There was the 1976 Teton, Idaho, the 1977 Laurel Run, Pennsylvania , and 1977 Toccoa falls, Georgia dam failures that claimed 11, 40 and 39 people and $1 billion, $5.3million and $2.5million dollars in damages. After the Toccoa incident, President Jimmy Carter issued a directive to the Army Corps of Engineers to inspect the nation’s non-federal high hazard dams. It was referred to as the ‘Phase I Inspection program’ that started in 1978 and came to a halt in 1981. The findings from the inspection brought about the safety programs in most states and led to the creation of the National Dam Safety Programs. The program approved all legislations except Alabama which has yet to pass the dam safety legislation. All these precaution strategic moves resulted in the creation of ASDSO Dam failures and incidents committee (DFIC) that aim to create awareness into dam failures and incidents with an objective of reducing the accidents that come about as result of the failures. It enacted the Nation Dam Safety Awareness Day on May 27, 2016, on the 40th anniversary of the Teton Dam Failure (ASDSO, 2016).
Causes of Dam Failure
While it has been identified that the major causes of accidents, damages in property and deaths in dams is a dam failure, what has yet to be identified is what causes the said failures. The major causes of dam failure include overtopping or what is commonly referred to as flood. Due to lack of adequate spillway for most dams, most construction firms often result to overtopping. This commonly causes failure that may result in loss of life and damages downstream.as both measures are factors that cause dam failure, companies are looking into ways to safely overtop a dam. Another cause of dam failure is foundation defects and slope instability. Slope stability refers to the capability of soil covered slopes that can withstand and undergo movement. This is measured through shear stress and strength. Factors that affect the slope include environmental factors that cause movement through loading, lateral pressure, and interparticle forces. Shear strength can be decreased through weathering and change in pore water pressure and organic material. If a slope weakness occurs on a slope, it can be aggravated by factors like weathering and organic material. This will cause dam failure. Such problems are solved using slope instability radar technology among others (TheContructor, 2015).
Another cause is piping. Other causes include deterioration or erosion, settlement or instability, spillway, structural, animal activity, ice, riser or pipe, sabotage or vandalism and other unknown factors, biggest contributors are overtopping and seepage. Erosion of downstream toe causes spillways and tail water that can result in dam failure. Seepage normally occurs at a certain measured predetermined quantity. If it exceeds the quantity through force of flow, it can cause dam failure. If the water passes through poor soils forming larger holes each time, it can cause drainage of dams as the channels grow bigger. If the piping occurs at the foundation, it causes erosion and leads to decrease of water in the dam and flooding in the surrounding areas. Other causes like nature's influence through earthquakes causes cracks in the walls causing leakage and piping failure. It causes failure if the dam through overtopping. It also causes more settlement than required, it causes sliding of natural hills and shear slides of the dam (TheContructor, 2015).
Hypothesis
The aim of the study is to establish if the relationship between the dam failure and the safety culture assessments. Culture may be referred to as the elements resulting from intentional and unintentional consequences, which cause an effect. Having that the situation in dam construction in the past was quite alarming being that there no safety culture assessment, the creation of one of the Army Agency brought calm to a situation that would have resulted into a state emergency and created fears into the world of construction and engineering. Safety assessment cultures are perceptions that have an influence on behavioral choices at work and away. After an assessment, and after various finding are compiled and assessed, the information provides a site's safety culture that is identified, prioritized and addressed. If the safety culture is adopted and implemented per the guidelines, then the number of dam failures and dam failure related damages can be reduced. Does the absence of the safety culture assessment affect and contribute to the accidents that occur in dam sites? For any site to be run properly, there must be several guidelines that people operate by. Safety culture assessment provides safety guideline that secures people and the environment from injuries.
Research Design
The research design is based on random sampling methods which are inclusive of questionnaires. Through questionnaires, it would be very easy to determine on the past failures in terms of safety precautions and measurement that led to most dam failures and damages in terms of resources and monetary funds. Other means include observation. By visiting ongoing dam construction sites, looking into already constructed dams and looking into dam plans for constructions on the way, precautionary points can be noted from risky overtopping, improper management of dams resulting in piping errors and spillage among others. Lastly, looking into experimentation, assessment into loading factors, lateral earth pressure and settle and stability can be measured before and after the construction of a dam to assess if a dam is prone to fail and help prepare for future precautionary measures (Blakstard, 2016).
Sampling Plan
Being that research can exist in many frames from qualitative and quantitative, the study is based on a descriptive research method. Through the research, a case study or case studies on a similar phenomenon that occurred in past time are done. Researching deeply into the data that was recorded or observed will shed light on various causes that may have caused the various accidents. It will examine what factors influenced the occurrence of the accidents, damage in properties, losses in money and failures of the dam. Through observation of nature’s cause, the dependency on the dam failure and other predicaments can be determined. Through a survey that include visits to the site, questionnaires, observations and other means, the real cause of dam failure can be determined. Engineering field laboratory tests can determine like mineral constitutes which can pose health dangers to miners and people surrounding the dam. They can also help to determine of the foundation material is weak or strong and thus measure risks that can lead to dam failure by the foundation. Twin studies into the construction of dams can also help prevent future damages caused by dam failures through proper safety cultural assessments (ScienceBuddies, 2016).
References
ASDSO. (2016). Dam Failures and Incidents. Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO), 1.
Blakstard, O. (2016). Research Designs. Explorable, 1.
ICOLD. (2016). Dams’ safety is at the very origin of the foundation of ICOLD. INTERNATIONAL COMMISSIONS ON LARGE DAMS (ICOLD), 1.
ScienceBuddies. (2016). Hypothesis. Science Buddies, 1.
TheContructor. (2015). FAILURE OF EARTHFILL DAMS: Some causes of failure of earth fill dams. The Constructor: Civil engineering Home, 1.
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