Using Cool New Tools to Reduce Risks at Comanche Dam

This paper summarizes some of the innovative analyses, design, and construction techniques that were used to stabilize Comanche Dam in western Oklahoma. Comanche Dam is a 38-foot-high, concrete gravity dam and Grama Dam is a 43-foot-high, embankment dam. Both dams were constructed on Deer Creek in the 1930s as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps program. Comanche Dam was constructed about 0.9 miles downstream of Grama Dam. Comanche Dam was stabilized with the construction of a downstream buttress consisting of Immersion Vibrated Roller Compacted Concrete (IVRCC). The use of IVRCC proved to be an economical and flexible construction method that had only been used once before in the United States. The stabilization of Comanche Dam and the innovative use of Stabilizing Comanche Dam reduced the risk of both dams. In addition, stabilizing Comanche Dam combined with the innovative use of GOS tools and two-dimensional water surface profile modeling through several key recreation and residential areas downstream of the dams resulted a decrease in hazard classification at both dams.