Background Overview:
In the 1920’s, Southern California experienced a large and rapidly population growth. The state decided to build a dam to provide water and electricity for the people. The dam has been built in March 16th, 1924 in the San Francisquito Canyon, 40 miles from Los Angeles Downtown. After designing the dam, which will be, 38000 acre and can hold up to 2.4 billion gallons of water. After starting the construction, The chief engineer and the designer which is named William Mulholland, concluded that the dam has to be raised 20 more feet to avoid flooding’s. In March 11th 1928, the dam keeper has detected that there was a leakage in the top part of the dam (figure 1 in appendices). The dam keeper contacted Mulholland about the leakage and have him come to the site and inspect it. Mulholland didn’t have any concerns and confirmed that it is not a big problem. In March 12th 1928, the dam has burst along the valley and killed more than 450, which made it the 2nd greatest man made disaster in California. This proposal will be discussing the design, post disaster testing, and the after math of the St Francis dam disaster.
Design:-
Construction:-
Post testing:-
Aftermath:-
Reference:
- David Rogers (2013) .The 1928 St. Francis Dam Failure and Its Impact on American Civil Engineering. ASCE Report (PDF).
Appendices:
Figure 1: leakage in St Francis dam