Tous dam
| Presa de Tous | |||||
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| Coordinates | 39 ° 8 '44 " N , 0 ° 39' 36" W | ||||
| Data on the structure | |||||
| Construction time: | 1957-1980, 1990-1994 | ||||
| Height above foundation level : | 72 m (old), 133 or 136 m (new) | ||||
| Height of the structure crown: | 98.50 m (old) | ||||
| Building volume: | 7th 730 000 m³ | ||||
| Crown length: | 780 m (old), 1025 m (new) | ||||
| Crown width: | 45 m (old dam) | ||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||
| Storage space | 50 million m³ (old), 340.4 million m³ (new) | ||||
The Tous dam is located 45 km southwest of Valencia . On October 20, 1982 , the dam was overflowed after extreme rainfall, whereupon the dam broke and caused a catastrophic tidal wave in which between 20 and 40 people were killed.
Construction of the dam
Construction of the dam began in 1957. Initially, a 110 m high gravity dam was planned . Between 1964 and 1974 there was a construction freeze due to geological disturbances in the building site because the wall proved to be unsuitable for the existing building site. After planning changes, the dam was completed in 1980 with a dam in the middle. The structure was now a combination of a gravity dam with a dam with a clay core . The dam was to be increased later in a second construction phase.
The dammed river is the Júcar .
The catastrophe
The day before the disaster, exceptionally heavy rainfall began in the catchment area . The flood became so strong that the dam was dammed very quickly. At times the dam flowed to about 5000 m³ / s. The electrical power, telephone and emergency power generators failed. All bottom outlets could not be opened, so that the dam could not be relieved. There were three slide gates at the flood relief, which could normally be pulled up to open, but they did not work without a power supply and could not be operated manually. A replacement emergency generator could not be procured quickly enough. As a result, the water level rose sharply. The dam crest was flooded from 5:30 p.m. Finally, at 6:15 p.m., the dam part was flooded one meter high, so that it was washed away. At 7:15 p.m., the wall between the dam and the flood discharge collapsed. The reservoir ran out the next day around 10 a.m.
causes
Geological difficulties were already known in the planning, but were not the cause of the break. The relief organs, including the slide gates of the flood relief, failed for technical and organizational reasons, so that the dam could be overflowed. There was therefore no adequately sized overflow that could have carried away such large amounts of water.
The cities of Sumacárcer , Alzira and other places were flooded by the resulting tidal wave . According to various sources, 20 to 40 people drowned.
The new dam
In January 1990, work began on a new Tous dam, which is a key project for flood protection on the Júcar . The Steinschütt Dam has a clay core. It was built on the site of the old dam.
literature
- Failure of the Tous dam, W. Nelihsen, I. Silva, Wasserbau-Seminar Aachen 1984, ISSN 0343-1045 , ISSN 0721-1082