HOOVER DAM

By Project Monsters
Presenters: Nazimah Abdul Rahim
Hakki Isik

HOOVER DAM
Concrete dam in Black
Canyon, on the border
between Arizona and Nevada
Named after Herbert Hoover,
who played an important
role in its construction
Built by Six-Companies, Inc.
Operated by Bureau of
Reclamation of the US Dept.
of the Interior
Lake Mead is the reservoir
constructed behind the dam

The Need for a Dam

Turbulent Colorado River periodically flood
vast areas of California and Arizona
The flood destroyed canals built for irrigation
and drinkable water
Herbert Hoover proposed construction of the
high dam to solve the problems

Who is Herbert Hoover?

Was Secretary of
Commerce under
President Coolidge
Graduated from
Stanford University
A successful mining
engineer, humanitarian
Elected as the 31st
President of the United
States

Questions That Were Raised

What would be the location of the dam?
Who would build the dam?
How would the dam going to be
financed?
Which states would get the water and
electricity?

Scope
Construction of the high dam would
control the periodic floods, store water
for irrigation, municipal and industrial
use
The customers would be the people
getting water, electricity from the dam

Resources
5200 workers on the construction with 3
shifts/day
5 millions barrel of cement used in the
concrete
9,000 tons of structured steel components
44,000 tons of large steel pipe and fittings
Giant cooling towers

Time Management
Hoover met with the 7 state governors
(AZ,CA,CO,NV,NM,UT,WO) to work out
suitable arrangement for their states use
November 1922, Colorado River Compact was
signed
In 1928, the Congress passed the Boulder
Canyon Act, allocating $175 million for the
dam construction

Time Management
Composite bid was accepted for $50 mil by
Six Companies in March 6 1931
Construction began in April 20 1931
June 1931, sufficient housing facilities were in
place
Construction was completed in March 1, 1936
The construction was completed 2 years ahead
of schedule

Cost Management
The most difficult part of the project
period of Great Depression
It cost a total of $165 million - $49
million to build the Hoover Dam
Unskilled labor paid $4/day and
minimum wage cost was <$6/hr
Paid back over a period of 50 years to
Federal Treasury by selling electricity

Project Management
One of the biggest engineering project at that
time - also the greatest testimony to functional
organizations and old fashioned management
control techniques
Active management was left in 4 hands: Henry
J. Kaiser, Charles A. Shea, Felix Kahn and
S.D. Bechtel

Project Management

Project Management
Frank Crowe (a.k.a Hurry Up) worked under
Shea acted as the man point between Board
of Directors and the operations personnel
It was Sheas responsibility to carry out the
construction on time and budget
Each department was headed by a manager
and held accountable for their work

Project Management
Dam construction was divided into 3
areas:
* Diversion tunnels and penstocks
* Concrete arched structure
* Power plant

Problems
Workers strike (August 1931) triggered by
deaths of many of the workers wives and
children due to extreme heat and lack of
sanitation in the campsite area
Huge dam size required a lot of cement and
engineers predicted it would take 125 years to dry
and cure
Heat generated in the chemical rxns in the drying
process would physically alter the landscape

Solutions to the Problem

Housing facilities were built, known as
Boulder City
Giant cooling tower/plant built to cool the
entire dam pumped ice water (37oF) at 1000
gal/min as the concrete was poured
With this approach, the dam was cooled in 20
months

FAQs

Height : 726.4 ft
Weight: 6.6 million tons
Total storage capacity : 30.5 million acre ft
Power generating capacity: 2.8 million kW
Has 17 generators
Part of a system that provides water to
over 25 million people in Southwest United
States