Hydrotechnical Construction. Vol. 31. No.

2, 1997

CONSTRUCTION OF GALLERIES IN THE BODY OF EARTH DAMS

V. A. Pekhtin and A. A. Serov

In hydrotechnical construction practice the watertight elements of earth dams are often joined with the foundation in
the river channel by constructing a reinforced-concrete gallery in dams. Galleries were constructed in the earth dams of the
Vilyui I and 2, Khantaika, Kolyma, Charvak, Kureika, Nurek, and Dnestr hydrostatiorts. The presence of a gallery in the
foundation makes it possible to solve many problems both during construction of the dam and during its operation. Works are
carried out from the gallery on constructing grout curtains, strengthening the dam foundation, and constructing drainage
systems; in galleries are installed measuring and monitoring equipment making it possible to observe water pressure in the
dam foundation, the effectiveness of the work of the grout curtain and drainage system, the temperature of water and of the
dam foundation, deformations of the foundation, etc. A gallery provides the possibility of checking the state and safety of the
dam and is a source of diverse information for diagnosis. A gallery makes it possible to carry out, if necessary, works on
restoring grout curtains and drainage systems and strengthening the dam foundation.
In a number of eases, without a grouting gallery it is impossible to solve many problems related to constructing a
certain type of dora under specific natural conditions of the site. An example is the dam of the Kolyma hydrostation (and a
number of others).
The pere,nially frozen granite rocks of the dam foundation of the Kolyma hydrostation after thawing having a
permeability coefficient of the order of 40 m/day. The width of individual ice-filled cracks was 1-2 era. The temperature of
the perennially frozen rocks is - 8 ~
Frozen rocks can be grouted only after thawing them to a positive temperature.
A grouting gallery made it possible to carry out many dam construction and assembly works not compatible with
restx~t to time and technology: working the sides and channel of the river, heating the foundation and its grouting, construct-
ing the body of the dam.
According to the design, heating the foundation for constructing a grout curtain was to be done in the summer with
water from the river. For this it was necessary at ftrst to construct roads and shoulders on the steep slopes of the banks, to
carry out earth and rock works on the cut-ins of the dam in the bank abutments at once to the full height of the dam. A long
time was required to carry out these quite difficult and tabor-intensive works.
In addition to this, several summer seasons were required for thawing the foundation and constructing the grout
curtain. Since it was impossible to combine these works, the dam construction time became drawn out excessively. At that
time there was still no experience in artificial thawing of rocks in domestic hydraulic engineering practice. Therefore it was
decided to carry out grouting works on the watertight curtain from a gallery in the presence of a filled reservoir as the rocks
thawed naturally, as was done on the dams of the Vilyui 1 and2 and Khantaika hydrostations, and to excavate the bank cut-
ins and construct the gallery on the slopes as the main body of the dam grew.
When solving problems about the need to construct a gallery in the dam foundation it is necessary to bear in mind
that the construction of a gallery is a labor-intensive and expensive job. The cost of works on constructing a gallery is about
10% of the total dam cost. Furthermore, under conditions of the northern construction-climatic zone with almost no river
runoff in the winter and with large spring, summer, and fall river discharges, the construction of a gallery in the channel
stretch is possible only in the winter. At the Vilyui 1 and 2 and Kolyma hydrostations the construction of a grouting gallery
in the river channel was attempted behind local cofferdams. However, this experience was unsuccessful: it was impossible to
construct impermeable cofferdams and to pump out the foundation pits in the winter in the bitter cold.
I t became possible to organize foundation pits in the river channel for constructing grouting galleries when the river
channel was dammed by earth cofferdams completely from bank to bank.

Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo, No. 2, pp. 36-39, February, 1997.

0018-8220/97/3102-0111518.00 9 Plenum Publishing Corporation Ii1

 Fig. 1. Inside dimensiom of gallery: 1) Kureika hydrostatiort; 2) Kolymya
hydrostation; 3) Vilyui hydrostation; 4) Dmstr hydrostation; 5) Khautaika
hydrostation; 6) Charvak hydrostation.

The winter discharges at the Vilyui hydrostation were passed through a diversion trench, and at the Kolyma hydrosta-
tion a small-section diversion mmml was constructed for this purpose.
In recent years still another trend of comtrnction of grouting galleries has been noted in design practice: not only a
rock foundation with excavation of the alluvial deposits in the river but directly on the channel deposits or on f'dl of the dam
body.
This technique facilitates construction of the gallery and dam, but in this case the problem of constructing the
watertight curtain below the grouting gallery should be solved. Such grouting galleries can tentatively be called "floating,"
i.e., in the channel part they are located in the dam body and on the bank slopes they rest on bedrocks or are constructed in
the banks by the mine driving method. Such galleries are planned in the dams of the Irganai and Tel'mare hydrostations and
are constructed at the Aswan hydrostation.
Still mother variant of constructing the gallery is possible -- driving it by the mining method in bedrocks of the river
channel. In this variant the construction and assembly works on constructing the dam, gallery, ami grout curtains do not
depend on one another and are successfully combined.
In the case of a substantial difference in the cost of underground and open construction works, the underground
variant of constructing the gallery can prove to be more expensive than the open variant. The possibility of independent
works on constructing the gallery and dam and reduction of the total time of constructing the dam will be the main advantage
here.
Figure 1 shows the inside dimensions of galleries constructed in dams. As is seen from Fig. 1, on the first (in time)
construction objects the inside dimensions of the grouting galleries were minimum: Khantaika hydrostation 2.5 • 3 m,
Kureika hydrostation 3 • 3.5 m; then these sizes were increased to 3.5 • 4 m, and even to 4 x 4.53 m on the grouting
gallery of the Dnestr hydro development; the Aswan High Dam had a gallery with inside dimensions of 4.5 • 5 m.
The inside shape of the galleries was also simplified: instead of a circular roof, a straight ceiling with brackets or a
simple rectangular section, as in the grouting gallery of the Dnestr hydro development, began to be used. On a number of
objects the inside surface of the grouting gallery was made in wood formwork (Vilyui I hydrostation, etc.), which is labor-
intensivework, especially when dismantling the formwork inside the close quarters of the gallery, where it is impossible to
use mechanization, and removal of the dismantled formwork and construction trash is possible only by carrying them
manually considerable distances to the transport outlets. Therefore at a number of objects (Kolyma hydrostation, Dnestr
hydro development) the inside formwork was made of precast reinforced-concrete slabs or in sliding metal formwork, which
considerably simplified and made it possible to mechanize the works.

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 Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Fig. 2. Gallery in dam of Kolyma hydrostation.

Fig. 3. Gallery in dam of Dnestr hydrostation.

Reinforcement of the grouting galleries on the f'trst objects was designed as single bars (Vilyui 1, Khantaika, and
Charvak hydrostations). However, the contractors on their own initiative replaced the single bars by reinforcement cages. The
quite short time usually allotted for constructing a grouting gallery in a river channel determines the development of industri-
ally and technologically efficient designs which can be constructed in a short time with maximum mechanization of the
works.
The method of burying the grouting gallery in the river channel has a substantial effect on the time of performing the
works and cost: completely buried, semiburied, or exposed grouting gallery. With a completely buried grouting gallery the
loam of the core or watertight facing has a fiat transition with the grouting gallery and concrete of the side transitions, which
determines the equal conditions for the stress state and deformability of the dam core in the dam foundation.
An exposed grouting gallery projects from the river channel as a tooth which, as it were, is cut into the dam core. In
this case the seepage flow along the loam--concrete contact increases, but simultaneously less favorable conditions are
created for the stress state of the core in the zone of the grouting gallery.
Substantial shortcomings of the grouting curtain completely buried in the river-channel foundation are the difficulties
of performing works on its construction as well as the inevitable increase of the design volumes of concrete as a consequence
of overbreakage of rocks beyond the design contour of the pit. The volume of overbreakage, which has to be t-died with
concrete, is from 10 to 25% of the design volumes. The maximum percent pertains to galleries with concrete slabs - - side
transitions.
For a buried grouting gallery it is required to excavate a rather deep (6-8 m) and narrow (7-10 m) trench in the
water-invaded river channel and on the steep bank slopes.
The domestic machine-building industry does not produce construction machines able to excavate under such
conditions. In the case of considerable seepage inflow of groundwaters, the organization of drainage from the pit of the
grouting gallery and works on its construction are complicated. These factors have a substantial effect on the selection of the
transition of the grouting gallery in the river channel.
The majority of grouting galleries constructed are exposed or semiburied; the grouting gallery of the Kolyma
hydrostation is exposed, although completely buried was specified in the original design.
The shape of the outer concrete surface of the grouting gallery, especially its vertical (inclined) surfaces, is signifi-
cant for the transition of the load of the core (facing) with the concrete of the grouting gallery. In grouting galleries that have
been constructed there are vertical surfaces (Khantaika and Kureika hydrostations) and surfaces with various slopes - - from
10:1 at the Dnestr hydro development to 2.32:1 at the Vilyui 1 and 2 hydrostations.
. Slopes of surfaces of 2:1, which permit simple and reliable rolling of loam adjacent to the concrete by rollers or
wheels of the heavy "Belaz" dump trucks, can be recommended. With a vertical surface or its 10:1 slope it is more difficult
to obtain a good loam--concrete contact and it is less reliable. The designs of galleries are shown in Figs. 2-4.

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 TABLE 1
Concrete consumption Reinforeement-st~_ .1 consumption Content of
Danl Total length on entire . per meter on entire gallery_ per meter reinforcement
Dam steel in 1 m3 of
height of gallery gallery, of length, m3 thousand m3 of length,
thousand m3 m3 concrete, kg
Vilyui 75 650 23.5 36 746 1,15 32
Kllantaika* 67 275 15.0 54 1.33 24
Kureika 80 560 26.7 48 40O 0,72 15
Kolyma 125 710 36,0 51 734 1.17 21
Charvak 156 713 26.0 36 2400 3.37 93
Dnesir 60 783 26,5 34 1790 2,29 67

*The volume of works includes, presumably, the volume of concrete of the side transitions adjacent to the
grouting gallery.

Fig. 4. Gallery in dam of Charvak hydrostation.

Seals of the Movement Joints in Grouting Galleries. The designs of the seals in the expansion and settlement joints
in grouting galleries are distinguished by diversity. In the grouting gallery of the Vilyui 1 and 2 hydrostations (dam H = 75
m) the expansion and settlement joint has two rows of stainless-steel sheet seals, which, however, did not completely
eliminate seepage of water into the grouting gallery.
After the dam was put into operation in 1969, about 260 seepage sites were counted. In 1994 there were only about
20 seepage sites with a discharge of 0.01 liter/sec, drips and slight seepage were observed at 80 sites, and seepage stopped
completely at the remaining sites.
The movement joints in the grouting gallery of the 156-m-high Charvak dam have two-row stainless-steel sheet seals
and the outer seals of the ceiling of the gallery are in the form of a groutstop made of a bar, bitumen, and stainless steel.
There is no information on the seepage strength of the seals.
In the grouting gallery of the Kolyma hydrostation (dam H = 125 m) the seal was made from a single row of
stainless-steel sheet or three-lobe rubber. The seals are working satisfactorily, leaks are insignificant.
In the grouting gallery of the Dnestr hydro development (dam H = 60 m) the seal is made of shaped three-lobe
rubber and the seal on the outside and inside contours of the gallery is made of a technical rubber strip and stainless steel.
Seepage into the gallery in the first years of operation was about 0.01-0.05 liter/sec, and then almost completely
ceased.
The indices of concrete and reinforcement-steel consumption on galleries constructed in dams are given in Table 1.
As is seen from Table l, the indices of the consumption of the main materials on grouting galleries that have been
constructed have a considerable spread. Thus, for almost the same height of the Vilyui, Khantaika, Kureika, and Dnestr dams
from 60 to 80 m, the consumption of concrete per linear meter of the gallery varies here from 34 to 48 m 3, i.e, by 1.4 times,
and the consumption of steel respectively from 0.72 to 2.29 tons, i.e., by 3 times.
If we compare the indices of the galleries of the Kolyma (H = 125 m) and Charvak (H = 156 m) hydrostations, then
for the first the consumption of concrete was 51 m 3 per linear meter of the gallery and for the second 36 m 3 (a difference of
1.6 times), the consumption of reinforcement steel was respectively 1.17 and 3.37 tons (a difference of almost 3 times). It is

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necessary to note here the higher technological efficiency of the design of the grouting gallery of the Kolyma hydrostation
from the viewpoint of performing the works compared with the gallery of the Charvak hydrostation.
An analysis of constructed grouting galleries attests to different approaches to their design both from the viewpoint of
selecting the design, calculation schemes, and loads and the inside dimensions of the gallery, their outside contour, and depth
in the river channel.
The experience of designing and constructing grouting galleries in the body of earth dams can be used when planning
hydraulic structures.

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