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HOOVER DAM. By Project Monsters Presenters: Nazimah Abdul Rahim Hakki Isik . HOOVER 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.
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HOOVER DAM By Project Monsters Presenters: Nazimah Abdul Rahim Hakki Isik
HOOVER 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 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? • 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 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?
Scope • 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
Resources • 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 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 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 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 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 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 Management • Dam construction was divided into 3 areas: * Diversion tunnels and penstocks * Concrete arched structure * Power plant
Problems • 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 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
FAQs • 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