Roller-Compacted Concrete for Dams - The State of the Art

More than a dozen permanent "all" RCC dams ( excluding RCD) were built in the 1980's. "All" RCC projects are generally considered to be those where the total conventional concrete volume including leveling foundations, diversions, facings, spillways, galleries, bedding, finishing the top of the dam, and other uses is on the order of about 5% or less of the RCC volume. Most of the 1980 's dams are on the order of 100 to 200 feet high and have volumes on the order of 25,000 to 400,000 cy, although the full range goes from about 20 to 285 feet with volumes of about 10,000 to 1,000,000 cy. Summaries of typical 1980"s projects and their performance have been previously presented (4, 6, 34, 35). References for specific projects are: Willow Creek Dam (5, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27); Copperfield Dam (36, 37); Monksville Dam (38, 39, 40, 41); Upper Stillwater Dam (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47); Olivette Dam (48); Galesville Dam (49, 50); Middle Fork Dam (49, 51); Saco Dam (52); Urugua-I Dam (53); Kerville Dam (54); Cedar Falls Dam (55); Winchester Dam (56); dams in China (57); and dams in South Africa (58). Figures 1 through 6 show the varied size and nature of some of these dams. The concentration of these 1980's projects is in the USA, but other countries such as Australia, Mexico, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Morocco also built all RCC dams in the 1980's.
The early 1990's have continued with RCC for small and medium size dams, and they have shown extended use to much larger projects. Examples include placement of RCC at the 325 ft high Trigomil Dam and final design with scheduled completion in mid 1990's of the 450 ft high La Miel II Dam (59). Serious feasibility studies for very large RCC projects have also become normal in the early 1990's. An example is the 565 ft high Agos Dam with a volume of approximately 6,500,000 cy. Large RCD projects continue to be popular in Japan.
RCC dams are no longer concentrated in the USA. They have spread throughout the world. In addition to RCD dam construction in Japan, RCC dam design and construction can now be found in USA, China, Mexico, Australia, Angola, Brazil, Argentina, Honduras, Iceland, Philippines, Morocco, Chile, Algeria, France, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Colombia, Ecuador, Greece, India, and other countries.