HOOVER DAM

By Project Monsters
Presenters: Nazimah Abdul Rahim
Hakki Isik
 HOOVER DAM
• Concrete dam in Black
Canyon, on the border
between Arizona and
Nevada
• Named after Herbert Hoover,
who played an important role
in its construction
• Built by Six-Companies, Inc.
• Operated by Bureau of
Reclamation of the US Dept.
of the Interior
• Lake Mead is the reservoir
constructed behind the dam
 The Need for a Dam
• Turbulent Colorado River periodically flood
vast areas of California and Arizona
• The flood destroyed canals built for irrigation
and drinkable water
• Herbert Hoover proposed construction of the
high dam to solve the problems
 Who is Herbert Hoover?
• Was Secretary of
Commerce under
President Coolidge
• Graduated from
Stanford University
• A successful mining
engineer, humanitarian
• Elected as the 31st
President of the United
States
 Questions That Were Raised
What would be the location of the dam?
Who would build the dam?
How would the dam going to be
financed?
Which states would get the water and
electricity?
 Scope
• Construction of the high dam would
control the periodic floods, store water
for irrigation, municipal and industrial
use
• The customers would be the people
getting water, electricity from the dam
 Resources
• 5200 workers on the construction with 3
shifts/day
• 5 millions barrel of cement used in the
concrete
• 9,000 tons of structured steel components
• 44,000 tons of large steel pipe and fittings
• Giant cooling towers
 Time Management
• Hoover met with the 7 state governors
(AZ,CA,CO,NV,NM,UT,WO) to work out
suitable arrangement for their states’ use
• November 1922, Colorado River Compact was
signed
• In 1928, the Congress passed the Boulder
Canyon Act, allocating $175 million for the
dam construction
 Time Management
• Composite bid was accepted for $50 mil by
Six Companies in March 6 1931
• Construction began in April 20 1931
• June 1931, sufficient housing facilities were in
place
• Construction was completed in March 1, 1936
• The construction was completed 2 years ahead
of schedule
 Cost Management
• The most difficult part of the project –
period of Great Depression
• It cost a total of $165 million - $49
million to build the Hoover Dam
• Unskilled labor paid $4/day and
minimum wage cost was <$6/hr
• Paid back over a period of 50 years to
Federal Treasury by selling electricity
 Project Management
• One of the biggest engineering project at that
time - also the greatest testimony to functional
organizations and old fashioned management
control techniques
• Active management was left in 4 hands: Henry
J. Kaiser, Charles A. Shea, Felix Kahn and
S.D. Bechtel
Project Management
 Project Management
• Frank Crowe (a.k.a Hurry Up) worked under
Shea – acted as the man point between Board
of Directors and the operations personnel
• It was Shea’s responsibility to carry out the
construction on time and budget
• Each department was headed by a manager
and held accountable for their work
 Project Management
• Dam construction was divided into 3
areas:
* Diversion tunnels and penstocks
* Concrete arched structure
* Power plant
 Problems
• Workers’ strike (August 1931) – triggered by
deaths of many of the workers’ wives and
children due to extreme heat and lack of
sanitation in the campsite area
• Huge dam size required a lot of cement and
engineers predicted it would take 125 years to
dry and cure
• Heat generated in the chemical rxns in the
drying process would physically alter the
landscape
 Solutions to the Problem
• Housing facilities were built, known as
Boulder City
• Giant cooling tower/plant built to cool the
entire dam – pumped ice water (37oF) at 1000
gal/min as the concrete was poured
• With this approach, the dam was cooled in 20
months
 FAQs
• Height : 726.4 ft
• Weight: 6.6 million tons
• Total storage capacity : 30.5 million acre ft
• Power generating capacity: 2.8 million kW
• Has 17 generators
• Part of a system that provides water to
over 25 million people in Southwest United
States