Puentes dam
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The dam of Puentes was built from 1785 to 1791 by the Royal Canal Society of Murcia (Real Compañía del Canal de Murcia) under the direction of Gerónimo Martínez de Lara north of Lorca in Spain . The shut-off, a gravity dam from rubble stone - masonry , was high 50 meters (according to other sources 69 m), 291 m long and 46 m wide below. The storage space was 13 million cubic meters. According to other information, even 52 million cubic meters were planned. At the time, it was the largest dam in the world.
The dam was to be built on rock. During construction, however, a large area of earth was discovered in the middle of the valley. This was not dug up to the rock, but the wall was founded here on stakes. In the following eleven years, the water level in the pool never rose above 25 m because not enough rain fell. It was not until April 1802 that there was heavy rainfall and the water rose to 46 m. As a result of this load, the entire pile foundation with the soft soil material was pushed out and washed away. On April 30, 1802, this caused a break in the middle part of the dam. There was a big hole, because the upper part stopped and looked like a bridge afterwards.
This was the greatest disaster in Spanish hydraulic engineering history . There were 608 victims (according to other sources 600) and an astronomical amount of damage. The cause of the break was a failure of the foundation during the first damming; it can also be referred to as " piping " (formation of pipes through seeping water in the underground).
The missing part of the wall was later replaced and the dam was put back into operation.
See also
literature
- JD van Buren: Notes on High Masonry Dams . Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Volume XXXIV, 1895.
Web links
Coordinates: 37 ° 44'5 " N , 1 ° 49'9" W.