Name :

1. Nadia Sastrivia Eka Christy (181317149)

2. Maria Yoscellind Dhea (181317526)

Analyze of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Nevada

The Hoover Dam holds the flow of the Colorado River at the end of the Grand Canyon,
bordering Arizona and Nevada, USA. When the dam was completed in 1936, a giant reservoir
called Lake Mead was created. A small earthquake was felt when the reservoir was filled with
water. When the reservoir was almost full, a magnitude 5 quake was felt in Las Vegas, 40 km
from the site. Luckily, the dam didn't break and the shake finally stopped. At present, the Hoover
Dam supplies water and electricity to a wide area, and also used for recreation, hydropower,
irrigation, maintenance of fish and wildlife habitat.
The Hoover Dam is the first dam to be equipped with a powerful motion accelerometer
and Lake Mead is the first reservoir to have a series of seismographs to evaluate the impact of
seismicity triggered from the reservoir. Hoover Dam helped create a new regional economy. The
Hoover Dam is 221 meters high, 379 meters long, and is capable of producing 2080 megawatts
of electricity - a wonder of world engineering. The Hoover Dam has giant diameter concrete
poles, and has exceptional wall thickness. At the top of the dam has a 15 meter thick concrete
wall that can be passed by vehicles. While at the bottom of the river it reaches 200 meters thick.
At a cost of $ 165 million and five years to complete, the Hoover Dam was one of the
most challenging projects of its time when thousands of workers worked in tunnels that were hot
and filled with carbon monoxide and hung from an altitude of 800 feet above the ground, even
falling to their deaths. In 1929, there was a problem with the collapse of the stock market in the
region, coupled with the severe drought conditions caused by the Nevada desert that destroyed
the Midwest in 1930, and destroyed the economic viability of families in the region.
Mismanagement resulted in around 112 deaths due to lack of intelligent safety factors in
dam construction projects. Falling objects or rocks are the most common cause of death at dam
sites, high scaler work helps ensure worker safety. There are also workers who drown when
determining the depth of the river, and diseases "that may arise due to conditions around the
area, such as pneumonia. The lack of safety factor standards used in the project also contributed
to the death of dam workers. Unlike today, safety equipment is better and more sophisticated.
Two cofferdams were built to protect the construction of the Colorado River as well as to
facilitate river diversion. Work on Upper Cofferdam began in September 1932, even though the
river had not yet been diverted. Cofferdams was built to protect against the possibility of river
flooding in locations where two thousand people might work. When cofferdams are on site and
the construction site is drained of water, excavation for the dam foundation begins. In order for
dams to rest on solid rock, it is important to eliminate soil accumulation against erosion.
At present, for modern workers, of course, to build dams as big as that they might do,
especially if there is a fairly large salary promise. Moreover, the present safety factor is of course
increasingly qualified and has a more guaranteed standard. But still the natural conditions
certainly cannot be denied anything that will happen later. At least the present for knowledge and
calculation in the process of building dams is more advanced and modern. For the general public
today it is possible that the involvement of financing the construction of large dams does not
want to contribute because, for the community they have already paid taxes for public
infrastructure which is certainly such development from the government as a whole and for the
welfare of its people.
The construction of dam construction for the present time is certainly still very important,
because the dam has many benefits such as holding back the rate of water into reservoirs, lakes
or recreation areas, irrigation agriculture, flowing water to a Hydroelectric Power Plant, and
fisheries. However, the construction of large and magnificent dams certainly not with little cost,
and a small effort. The construction of large dams certainly requires greater costs and labor. But
for the present, the construction of dams does not need to be too big and grand, which is
important around the dam environment to support and not too damaging the environment and the
dam can work well and function properly. But we also need to pay attention to the construction
of the dam to stand strong and not suffer significant damage. Do not forget to always pay
attention to work safety, so that the dam construction process does not take many victims. And
pay attention to economic conditions in the scope of the family in the environment so as not to
experience interference.