Construction and maintenance of dams
The spread and the expansion of dams construction in the Kingdom embody the interest and the care of the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Highness the Crown Prince, may God preserve them, in providing supportive water sources for the development of the areas of population centers and agricultural areas adjacent to the paths of the valleys, which requires studying the best means and ways to manage and operate dams operationally and scientifically correct that depends on dealing with the economics and feasibility of management and operation and benefiting from global experiences and expertise in this field.
The Main Objectives Of the Construction Of Dams
Replacing underground water in the dam area and providing water for wells in the areas behind the dams.
Providing potable water for some areas through purification plants built on dams.
Providing irrigation water for agricultural purposes by direct irrigation of agricultural areas behind dams through irrigation projects organized for that.
Protecting cities and villages from the dangers of torrential rains and floods, and preserving the lives and properties of citizens .
Ways to build a dam in the Kingdom
Dams contain more than 150 thousand cubic meters of concrete , according to the length and width of the dam . A road passes over the dam on a bridge whose width is 4.5 meters. It is built of concrete blocks with in length. Extreme care was taken to reduce the temperature of the concrete at the time of pouring in order to avoid cracking. Also , the internal temperatures are controlled through opening chilled water through a 25 mm diameter pipe system embedded in the concrete.
The rock under the dam is injected to increase its hardness and stability and reduce its porosity to form a curtain of 40 meters deep with an inclination of 30 degrees Celsius to the top. In order to reduce the water pressure in the rock under the injection curtain, drainage wells were dug in the foundation corridor and three other corridors in each well through which the water leaking into the rocks is disposed of where these corridors have three exits close to its base, each of which is 2.25 meters in diameter, controlled by sliding gates in the lower facade. These measurements differ from one dam to another, as these gates allow some of the suspended sediments in the storage lake to pass through them.
The body of the dams and their shoulders are provided with an integrated monitoring system to measure the vertical and horizontal deviations of the dam and the foundations by means of hanging pendulums, as well as automatically recording the upper water level in the lake, as well as the amount of water discharged from the openings and exits to give a clear picture of the water drained from the dam lake with extreme accuracy.
