Seymour Falls Dam Seismic Upgrade Project
Wins 2007 Canadian Consulting Engineers Award of Excellence
October 2007
The Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine and the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada (ACEC) 2007 presented Klohn Crippen Berger with two Awards of Excellence in Ottawa on October 23rd. Awards were given for innovative engineering design for four building projects, two dams, a wastewater treatment plant and a tailings pond. The 11 winners were selected from 65 entries.
The Project
The Seymour Falls Dam retains a reservoir that supplies nearly 40% of the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD) drinking water. Located in the mountains above North Vancouver, the project area is of high environmental value, close to a sensitive fish hatchery and within the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve, which is heavily used by the general public, educators and the film industry.
The Seymour Falls Dam was completed in the 1960s as a composite earthfill and concrete structure. As it no longer met current criteria for earthquake safety, the Greater Vancouver Water District (the Owner) implemented a seismic upgrade to allow the structure to withstand a Maximum Credible Earthquake.
Klohn Crippen Berger’s upgrade of the earthfill dam involved construction of a new, stand alone earthfill dam. The new dam’s foundation was compacted using an innovative, challenging combination of Explosive Compaction and Dynamic Compaction, in a confined space near operating structures.
Hatch Energy’s upgrade of the concrete dam included strengthening of the concrete slab and buttress dam through the installation of post-tensioned anchors and other structural upgrades, and an extension to the existing concrete gravity wall required to contain the upgraded earthfill dam and connect it to the concrete section.
The project was largely completed in December 2006 without disruption to normal dam operations or the nearby fish hatchery. Local communities and the environment were protected.
The upgrade provides for the dam’s safety and an uninterrupted water supply to GVRD communities in a time of potential extreme emergency after a major earthquake.
