Human Factors Contributing to the Failure of Big Bay Dam

Big Bay Dam failed in 2004, about 13 years after completing the original construction. Physically, the general failure mechanism was piping, which likely began to develop soon after first filling of the reservoir. However, underlying and interacting with physical processes, there were a variety of adverse human factors related to the design, construction, inspection, and remediation of the dam, areas in which actions fell short of implementing the best practices which are needed to prevent failures. This paper presents a framework for evaluating such human factors, and describes the factors which specifically contributed to the failure of Big Bay Dam.