Evolution of State of the Art in Embankment Dam Design and Construction

After the 1976 Teton Dam failure, Congress passed the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act, allowing dam modifications for safety without local cost sharing when driven by new hydrologic or seismic data or advances in engineering criteria. Later amendments in the 1984 and 1986 Water Resource Development Acts required that 15% of such modification costs be shared by local sponsors, and this cost-attribution authority was extended to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

To keep sponsors from having to bear a financial burden when standards changed, it was important to establish what the state
of the art was for certain aspects of embankment dam design over time.

USACE’s Risk Management Center (RMC) studied a variety of documents detailing the evolution of embankment dam design and construction practices to establish those changes and timeframes. A side effect of that study is that it ultimately provides a comprehensive general reference for modern dam engineering principles. For those who have worked in the industry for many years, the report is a valuable reference. For those who are starting out or expanding their knowledge, the reading list serves as an important blueprint to provide the background for the philosophies that have been and are now used in the industry.