Tempe Town Lake Dam: Another Burst Bubble

On the night of 20 July 2010, one of the four rubber bladders that comprise Tempe Town Lake Dam failed, sending a wave of water down the Salt River past Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and through the Phoenix Metropolitan area. There was no loss of life or serious flood inundation, as the water was contained within the banks of the otherwise dry Salt River. Fortunately, the dam failed that night instead of either earlier that afternoon or the next day when construction and engineering personnel would have been working downstream of the dam The construction personnel were to begin the replacement of those four, 16?foot diameter bladders that make up the nearly 1,000?foot long dam. Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. provided the engineering, inspection, permitting, agency coordination, and construction management for the emergency repair of the dam. The construction manager at risk contractor was PCL Construction Inc., and the bladders were manufactured by Bridgestone Industrial.
The team worked closely with the dam owner (City of Tempe), the Arizona Department of Water Resources, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Flood Control District of Maricopa County, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the Salt River Project, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and other agencies and stakeholders in meeting the dam safety, permit, environmental, and construction requirements. To make the effort more challenging, the city had committed to having the lake functional before winter to meet scheduled events and tourist attractions.
In addition to construction management, Stantec performed structural inspection of the dam superstructure as each bladder was removed, and coordinated the material testing of the failed bladder to ascertain the cause of failure. The dam was repaired and lake filling commenced in October 2010, meeting the City's schedule.
The presentation covers the dam failure, its cause, inspection, bladder replacement, and construction challenges. The failure of Tempe Town Lake Dam illustrates the poor condition of our dams and infrastructure, and the possible dire consequences to our public welfare. 7 pp.