UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

CE406: HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES

DAM CONSTRUCTION
Dr. Eng. M. J. TUMBARE
March 2020
 COURSE OUTLINE
CONSTRUCTION
 SETTING-UP CAMP
 SITE CLEARING
 SETTING OUT
 PROJECT MATERIALS
 RIVER DIVERSION
 CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT
 INSPECTIONS
 MEASUREMENT OF QUANTITIES
 PAYMENT CERTIFICATES
 CLEARING SITE AT COMPLETION OF WORKS

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 2

 REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READING

• Ministry of Water Development, 1977, A Guide to Design and

Construction of Medium Sized Earth Dams in Rhodesia, Salisbury
• Stephens, 1991, Handbook on small dams and weirs, Cranfield Press.
• FAO, 2010, Manual on Small Earth: A guide to siting, design and
construction, FAO Rome, ISBN978-92-5-106547-1 Dfile:///F:/FAO
%20Manual%20on%20Small%20Earth%20Dams.pdfams

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 3

 CONSTRUCTION: SETTING-UP CAMP

1.1 Setting-up Camp

Most large civil engineering works require that the
key personnel executing and supervising the Works
should reside on site for a variety of reasons;
• Reducing transportation costs
• Flexible working hours on site
• Security of plant and equipment
• Security of site
• Ensuring expertise is on site at all times

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 4

 CONSTRUCTION: SETTING-UP CAMP
• The Contractor and the Engineer’s Representative together
with their staff have to set-up camp.
• Setting-up camp involves;
– establishing roads to site (usually in very remote areas)
– Water supply and sanitation facilities
– Power (diesel generators, solar or national grid)
– Telephones
– Housing for all staff
– Site offices and laboratories
– Workshops
– Site emergency medical services
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 5
 CONSTRUCTION: SITE CLEARING
1.2 Site Clearing
• Borrow areas for all materials and foundations for the Works should be
cleared of all organic or other unsuitable materials such as tree stumps,
roots, grass and boulders to facilitate ease of working by machines and
other construction equipment.
• All ant-nests within 50 meters of the toe lines of the foundations for the
Works should be completely removed.
• For site clearing operations, it is important to physically pick up and
remove the unwanted materials.
• A dozer is not a suitable tool for stripping and should only be used for
pioneering work to enable scrappers to operate. A dozer is wasteful,
messy and risky as it tends to cover-up weak or bad spots.
• The top soil removed from stripping and site clearing should be heaped
and stored for restoration works on completion of the Works.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 6

 CONSTRUCTION: SETTING OUT
1.3 Setting Out
• Right at the beginning of construction, permanent axis-line markers,
bench-marks and survey beacons should be installed at points convenient
for control of construction and well clear of any likely interference during
construction by the Works or construction equipment.
• When setting out the toe lines for the embankment, consideration should
be made for settlement allowance.
• The axis-line should be set out along the line of the upstream edge of the
crest so that slope checking operations do not impede the earthmoving
plant in the final stages of construction.
• Cross-sectional lines are then established at intervals (15 -25 metres)
along the axis-line.
• The constructed crest-level (CCL) is established for each section. The CCL
is the designed crest level plus settlement allowance.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 7

 CONSTRUCTION: PROJECT MATERIALS
1.4 PROJECT MATERIALS
Construction materials usually consist of;
– Soils from borrow areas
o These are usually found in identified borrow areas around the site.
o In most cases, moisture conditioning of the soil materials is done in
the borrow areas through irrigation systems.
o Materials are usually brought to the required areas on site using
scrappers or tipper trucks loaded by front-end loaders.
– River sand from nearby sources
o River sand for sand filters is usually found in nearby rivers and sand
beds, at times on the same river the dam is being constructed on.
o Samples are usually brought to site for testing for suitability for use
prior to hauling to site.
o The river sand is usually stockpiled on site.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 8

 CRITICAL CORE MATERIAL PARAMETERS
• Plasticity Index (PI) < 30
• Activity < 2
• Liquid Limit (WL) < 45
• Plasticity Product (Pp) < 1200
• Shrinkage Limit (Is) < 10
• % material passing 75µm sieve < 50
• % material passing 2,4mm sieve < 90
Reject material if any three parameters are
exceeded
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 9
 CONSTRUCTION: PROJECT MATERIALS (CONT….)

– Concrete fine aggregates

o These constitute the river and pit sands which are added into the
concrete mix.
o The fine aggregates are usually obtained from borrow areas around
the site.
o At times quarry dust can be used if it meets the specified grading
requirements.
o The fine aggregates are kept in bins on site.
– Concrete coarse aggregates
o Concrete coarse aggregates can be brought to site if there are already
established quarries near site.
o Concrete coarse aggregates can also be produced on site if there is suitable
rock in large enough quantities to warrant establishing a crushing plant on
site.
o Concrete aggregates are kept in bins on site for ease of collection by size for
batching.
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 10
 CONSTRUCTION: PROJECT MATERIALS (CONT….)

– Cement
o In many cases cement is brought in in pockets. This is because such
packaged cement is easy to store and handle.
o Cement can also be brought to site in bulk.
o Cement should be used on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis.
– Quarried rip-rap or stone pitching
o Rip-rap or stone pitching is usually quarried on site from either hard
excavations or rock outcrops.
– Grass for stabilising the slopes
o Usually local grass that grows under local conditions if found in
sufficient quantity and that mats into a lawn is favoured.
o If no local grass is available this is brought to site from nurseries or
planted on site for latter transplanting or planted directly onto the
embankment.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 11

 CONSTRUCTION: PROJECT MATERIALS (CONT….)

- Water
o This is a vital material on site.
o Water is required for both construction work and for
domestic use by the staff working on site.
o Usually boreholes are sunk for domestic use if such
sites avail themselves and the boreholes yield
sufficient water quantities.
o If the river is perennial, coffer dams are usually built
and the water stored used for construction and other
purposes.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 12

 ESTIMATION OF EARTHWORK VOLUMES

- Volume of Earthworks
An equation derived by the Ministry of Agriculture in Zimbabwe and
reported as being “reasonably accurate” by Stephens (1991), can be used to
estimate the volume of earthworks at the feasibility or site selection stage
of small dam projects. The equation is:
V = 0.216* H* L* (2*Cw +H*S)
Where:
V = The volume of earthworks (m3)
H = The dam height (m)
L = The length of the dam at the crest including the spillway (m)
Cw = The crest width (m)
S = The combined upstream and downstream embankment slopes
(For example, if the slopes of the embankment are 2:1 and 1.75:1, S = 3.75)

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 13

 CONSTRUCTION:RIVER DIVERSION
1.5 RIVER DIVERSION
• If the construction period is not long and does not span
into a full rainy reason, works can be planned to
commence towards the end of a rainy season and be
completed at the start of the next rainy season. In this
case the river diversion works required will be minimal
and be no more than passing the required normal flow.
• However for major works spanning over one or more
rainy seasons, diversion works are required. This can be
achieved through the construction of coffer dams and the
utilisation of the final outlet works for the dam by
scheduling early completion of same.
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 14
 CONSTRUCTION: RIVER DIVERSION (CONT…)

• If the construction goes through a rainy season, excavations in either

the river bed section or on either side of the embankment should be
completed in the dry season and backfilled with the appropriate
materials to enable the river to flow through the construction site
unhindered. Completion of any unfinished foundation excavations
can then be completed in the next dry season and backfilled.
• Where site conditions allow, an alternative river diversion method is
to complete during the dry season the embankment to a certain
sufficient height that allows diversion of the season’s flood through a
temporary spillway.
• For concrete or masonry structures, diversion of flood waters in many
cases is not necessary as the concrete/masonry structure can be used
as an overflow spillway. However, passage of normal flow is required
at all times.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 15

 TOKWE-MUKOSI DAM: FEBRUARY 2014

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 16

 CONSTRUCTION: CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT

1.6 CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT

The construction equipment brought on site depends
largely on the scale and sophistication of the works may
include;
• Dozers of various sizes
• Scrappers
• Graders
• Back-actors
• Front-end loaders
• Water bowsers
• Concrete batching plant
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 17
 CONSTRUCTION: CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT (CONT….)

• Tipper trucks
• Compressors
• Jack hammers
• Concrete vibrators
• Cranes
• Dewatering pumps
• Grouting machines
• Irrigation equipment
• Light vehicles
• Concrete and soil testing equipment

It is thus necessary to have a fully functional Workshop on site as well as

a sufficiently equipped materials testing laboratory.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 18

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 19
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 20
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 21
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 22
 CONSTRUCTION: INSPECTIONS

1.7 INSPECTIONS
• Inspections of all works executed on site are the responsibility of the
Engineer’s Representative and his/her staff.
• All works should be inspected prior to commencement and approved
by the Engineer’s Representative.
• The Engineer’s Representative’s staff should always be present during
concrete pours, grouting operations or earth placement.
• Compaction and moisture content and other material tests should be
undertaken by the Engineer’s Representative’s staff as appropriate on
all earth placements and materials.
• Concrete samples should be taken to make concrete cubes for testing
the concrete strengths after 7, 14, and 28 days.
• The quality of the resultant Works depends on the quality of the
supervision given.
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 23
 CONSTRUCTION: MEASUREMENT OF QUANTITIES

1.8 MEASUREMENT OF QUANTITIES

• Quantities of all the works carried out on site should be
measured frequently and before being covered-up.
• The Engineer’s and the Contractor’s Representative’s Quantity
Surveyors should work very closely and agree and sign for
measured quantities as they are measured.
• If there is a disagreement the Engineer’s and Contractor’s
Representatives should be called forthwith for adjudication.
• The quantities measured are then aggregated at the end of
each month and result in the formulation of the Certificate of
Payment which is certified by the Engineer’s and Contractor’s
Representatives prior to sending to the Client for payment.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 24

 CONSTRUCTION: PAYMENT CERTIFICATES
1.9 PAYMENT CERTIFICATES
• Payment Certificates are generated on site from measurement of works
executed by the Contractor.
• The Payment Certificate will also include payment for approved
materials on site, establishment costs and any other approved variation
costs in respect to the works themselves or price escalations on labour,
materials, plant or equipment.
• The rates used for payment are those contained in the Bill of Quantities
as tendered for by the Contractor.
• Payment Certificates are usually raised on a monthly basis with the Final
Payment Certificate being issued at the end of the Works.
• Usually a retention of up to 10% of the Contract Sum is retained by the
Client which is released after the Maintenance Period of the Works is
attained.

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 25

 CONSTRUCTION: CLEARING SITE AT COMPLETION OF
WORKS
1.10 CLEARING SITE AT COMPLETION OF WORKS
• When all works are completed, the site has to be cleared.
• All temporary accommodation, offices, workshops and other
temporary site facilities should be dismantled and removed from
site.
• Borrow areas should be rehabilitated to facilitate re-growth of
grass and trees.
• All excavated slopes and quarries should be made safe for both
livestock and humans.
• All construction equipment and personnel have to leave site.
• The Engineer’s Representative has to produce the Construction
Report and the Operation and Maintenance Manual for the Dam.
• This is when the operation and maintenance of the Dam begins.
March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 26
 FINITO CONSTRUCTION

March 2020 CE406: Construction - Dr Tumbare 27