HOOVER DAMHOOVER DAM

By Project MonstersBy Project MonstersPresenters: Nazimah Abdul RahimPresenters: Nazimah Abdul Rahim

Hakki Isik Hakki Isik

HOOVER DAMHOOVER DAM

• Concrete dam in Black Canyon, on the border between Arizona and Nevada

• Named after Herbert Hoover, who played an important role in its construction

• Built by Six-Companies, Inc. • Operated by Bureau of

Reclamation of the US Dept. of the Interior

• Lake Mead is the reservoir constructed behind the dam

The Need for a DamThe Need for a Dam

• Turbulent Colorado River periodically flood vast areas of California and Arizona

• The flood destroyed canals built for irrigation and drinkable water

• Herbert Hoover proposed construction of the high dam to solve the problems

Who is Herbert Hoover?Who is Herbert Hoover?

• Was Secretary of Commerce under President Coolidge

• Graduated from Stanford University

• A successful mining engineer, humanitarian

• Elected as the 31st President of the United States

Questions That Were RaisedQuestions That Were Raised

What would be the location of the dam?Who would build the dam?How would the dam going to be

financed?Which states would get the water and

electricity?

ScopeScope

• Construction of the high dam would control the periodic floods, store water for irrigation, municipal and industrial use

• The customers would be the people getting water, electricity from the dam

ResourcesResources• 5200 workers on the construction with 3

shifts/day

• 5 millions barrel of cement used in the concrete

• 9,000 tons of structured steel components

• 44,000 tons of large steel pipe and fittings

• Giant cooling towers

Time ManagementTime Management

• Hoover met with the 7 state governors (AZ,CA,CO,NV,NM,UT,WO) to work out suitable arrangement for their states’ use

• November 1922, Colorado River Compact was signed

• In 1928, the Congress passed the Boulder Canyon Act, allocating $175 million for the dam construction

Time ManagementTime Management

• Composite bid was accepted for $50 mil by Six Companies in March 6 1931

• Construction began in April 20 1931

• June 1931, sufficient housing facilities were in place

• Construction was completed in March 1, 1936

• The construction was completed 2 years ahead of schedule

Cost ManagementCost Management

• The most difficult part of the project – period of Great Depression

• It cost a total of $165 million - $49 million to build the Hoover Dam

• Unskilled labor paid $4/day and minimum wage cost was <$6/hr

• Paid back over a period of 50 years to Federal Treasury by selling electricity

Project ManagementProject Management

• One of the biggest engineering project at that time - also the greatest testimony to functional organizations and old fashioned management control techniques

• Active management was left in 4 hands: Henry J. Kaiser, Charles A. Shea, Felix Kahn and S.D. Bechtel

Project ManagementProject Management

Project ManagementProject Management

• Frank Crowe (a.k.a Hurry Up) worked under Shea – acted as the man point between Board of Directors and the operations personnel

• It was Shea’s responsibility to carry out the construction on time and budget

• Each department was headed by a manager and held accountable for their work

Project ManagementProject Management

• Dam construction was divided into 3 areas:

* Diversion tunnels and penstocks

* Concrete arched structure

* Power plant

ProblemsProblems

• Workers’ strike (August 1931) – triggered by deaths of many of the workers’ wives and children due to extreme heat and lack of sanitation in the campsite area

• Huge dam size required a lot of cement and engineers predicted it would take 125 years to dry and cure

• Heat generated in the chemical rxns in the drying process would physically alter the landscape

Solutions to the ProblemSolutions to the Problem

• Housing facilities were built, known as Boulder City

• Giant cooling tower/plant built to cool the entire dam – pumped ice water (37oF) at 1000 gal/min as the concrete was poured

• With this approach, the dam was cooled in 20 months

FAQsFAQs

• Height : 726.4 ft

• Weight: 6.6 million tons

• Total storage capacity : 30.5 million acre ft

• Power generating capacity: 2.8 million kW

• Has 17 generators

• Part of a system that provides water to over 25 million people in Southwest United States