MULTIPLE PROBES START ON DAM FAILURE

Stat committees and fact-finding boards have been set up to investigate the failure of the 12-year-old Los Angeles' Baldwin Hills Dam. There has been speculation on whether subsidence or natural earth movements triggered the failure; oil interests are fighting any suggestion that petroleum withdrawals caused subsidence that caused collapse. It is also speculated that a previously mapped fault in the area of the reservior floor which crosses the dam at the point where it failed could be the cause. However, it is considered too early to say whether the crack caused the failure, or whether the failure, with its sudden pressures and release of pressure, caused the crack. It is also possible that the failure was caused by natural, long-term, progressive movement in a fault seal, a porous drainage course, an impervious 10-ft thick compacted earth blanket, and paved with asphaltic concrete to prevent seepage of water into the permeable material underlying the structure.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/08919526
• Corporate Authors:

  McGraw-Hill, Incorporated

  330 West 42nd Street
  New York, NY  United States  10036
• Publication Date: 1964-1-2

Media Info

• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p. 15
• Serial:
  • Engineering News-Record
  • Volume: 172
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill, Incorporated
  • ISSN: 0891-9526

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asphalt; Asphalt concrete; Cracking; Dams; Failure; Faults; Pavement surface course; Subsidence
• Uncontrolled Terms: Membranes
• Old TRIS Terms: Dam failures; Fault zones; Membranes (Biology)
• Subject Areas: Geotechnology; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00081574
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 19 1975 12:00AM