130th Anniversary of the Bouzey Dam Failure –The Importance of Internal Uplift Pressure in Stability Design of Gravity Dams

Bouzey Dam was a 74-foot-high (22.7 meters), 1720-foot-long (525 meters), stone masonry gravity dam located near Epinal, France. The construction of the dam started in 1876 and completed in 1880. On March 14, 1884, when the water depth reached 63.6 feet (19.4 meters), a large section of the dam slid up to one foot (0.35 meters) downstream. Between 1885 and 1889, the dam was drained to facilitate repair of the structure including blocking and sealing of the upstream base of the dam, which was cracked, construction of a downstream embankment berm, adding foundation drains at the base of the dam, and filling vertical cracks with cement mortar/grout. Refilling of the reservoir began in 1889, and by May 1890, the water depth reached 70.9 feet (21.6 meters) and remained around the same level for the subsequent years. On Saturday, April 27, 1895, at 5:45 AM, a 591-foot-long (180 meters) by 33-foot-high (10 meters) section of the dam collapsed. This was due to the development of horizontal cracks and full internal uplift pressure within the body of the dam, which led to sudden overturning failure. The resulting flood killed 85 people and caused extensive downstream damage. Key factors contributing to the failure of Bouzey Dam are highlighted as poor design and poor construction practices in literature [1]. In this paper, the stability analysis of the Bouzey Dam is evaluated under the applied loads. The lessons learned from this catastrophic failure are also highlighted.