Section Meeting Thursday Feb 6, 2025

When: Feb 6, 2025 from 05:30 PM to 08:30 PM (CT)

Please join us for the ASCE-Nebraska Section February geotechnical monthly meeting on February 6, 2025.

Hosted by the NE-ASCE Geotechnical Institute Chapter
(Bryan Kumm, Geotechnical Technical Group Committee Chair & Kristle Beaudet Co-Chair)

Presenter

Mr. Andrew Barry, P.E. Chief of the Dam and Levee Safety Branch with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Mr. Ross Hiner, Northwestern Division Dam Safety Program Manager with the U.S. Army corps of Engineers

Topic: Assessing the Future Legacy of Northwestern USACE Dams

Program:

5:30 – 6:30 pm Social (with wine, beer, and spirits)

6:30 – 7:30 pm Dinner

7:30 – 8:30 pm Presentation

Menu:

Fiesta Buffet Dinner: Chicken Fajitas, Beef Tacos, Spanish Rice, Pinto Beans, Corn, Tortilla Chips & Salsa, Guacomole, Sour Cream, condiments, Tres Leche, cookies, and other mini deserts.

ABSTRACT

The Northwestern Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers owns and manages 90+ dams spanning across the Missouri and Columbia River Basins. This infrastructure has managed floods, generated hydropower, facilitated inland navigation, and provided reliable water supply for tens of millions of people over nearly a century. These systems of dams have unique challenges that vary across this extensive region. The current focus is and will continue to be on evaluating the future of dams across this varied and diverse geographic landscape. The challenges range from poor foundation conditions below large spillways in the Missouri River Basin, seismic stability of large rockfill and concrete dams in the Columbia River Basin constructed prior to the knowledge of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and adapting or modifying dams to minimize impacts to anadromous fish in the Pacific Northwest. The scale of investment needed, complexity of the technical challenges, interconnected systems of the built environment, and multifaceted ecological considerations are challenging existing procedures and decision criteria. Moving forward, these decisions will require wholistic and comprehensive evaluation of solutions than can be realistically implemented with available human, capital, and technical resources. How we maximize our contribution to watersheds and society through these civil engineering structures will likely be our profession’s legacy and markers on this earth.

This presentation will provide engineers and leaders in the dam industry examples of problem sets and potential solutions to broaden their perspectives and inspire bigger thinking about the structures that we steward and how we can maximize our efforts to improve the legacy of our dam infrastructure.