Interesting data

[Seadog]

I am in the midst of a conference about dams here in OKC. We have reps from dozens of states and I am getting some interesting stories. For those who are interested, as an example, there are 1250 dams in California, but over 4500 in Oklahoma that require monitoring for safety. Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state. interestingly enough, it also is a leader in dam safety and maintenance. The dams (not including the federal dams) will require 40 billion dollars in upkeep and they are needing 10.2 immediately..
To most people this is probably boring, but I enjoy visiting with the dedicated engineers that enjoy the challenges of often difficult tasks.
Of course, we made it interesting for them by arranging a tornado at the end of the sessions today.
[ May 08, 2003, 08:19 PM: Message edited by: Seadog ]

[HighRoller]

Hey that's pretty DAM interesting stuff.Better watch out for that DAM tornado.That DAM weather is a pain in the ass eh?

[Rexone]

with 4500 dams you guys should have no excuses why you aren't boating 24-7-365. That is "a lot" of damn dams, lol

[MJ19]

to fix a road that was wiped out by a flood...our friend had to do SOOOO many surveys to calculate the water, force, rain, etc...it took forever for the county to be pleased with the reports and to hand over the money to fix the road...it's amazing how much goes into building 'things' :cool:

[Boatcop]

Dam inspectors?
We don't need no Dam inspectors.
If you live below the sucker, you and your neighbors ought to have your ass up there checking the son-of-a-bitch for cracks.

[HOSS]

Seadog, I have a serious question. Yeah it happens sometimes. What stage of the game is the dam in China at? The biggest in the world. Know anything about it? Amazing!

[Seadog]

The last I heard was they are preparing to fill it. They are so secretive, its hard to really know.
One of the speakers was the master of a Corp repair barge that had some tales of some of the hairy events on the lock systems. He told about once when the operator called the manager and said the downstream lock doors were gone. The manager said what do mean. The operator said they are headed downstream. There was a boat in the locks at the time and he had an E ticket ride.

[Seadog]

There are 78,000 dams in the national inventory. 2100 are considered unsafe and 61 dams have failed in the past two years. The problems is that the government is more than will to spend on new equipment, but can never find enough to take care of what they have. The Corp has only built two dams in the past ten years and about half of their inventory is over fifty years old.
The most boring part of the conference was the analytical calculations used to determine the drainage flows for the Spook Mountain retention basin as part of the Red Mountain Freeway in Maricopa County, north of Mesa.