The Booneville Dam was a major engineering feat that was authorized in 1933 as one of President Roosevelt’s public works programs. These were projects funded by the government with the intention of putting people to work while simultaneously providing a service for the people. This article does not focus on the Great Depression aspect of the project; rather it focuses on three principle design innovations that made the Booneville Dam a successful project. This was a project unlike any previous dam and presented many challenges throughout the design and construction. This first major engineering issue faced was curing the concrete without cracking caused by heat released during the curing process. Traditionally, concrete was poured in five …show more content…
Problems like the fishways for migrating salmon that help stimulate the Northern Pacific region’s economy were also major issues. The salmon obviously couldn’t pass through a turbine so fishways had to be created to bypass the dam. The results may not have been as good as hoped, but given the information there was at the time, the corps did as good of job as could have been expected. Another issue faced during construction was the diversion of water since it couldn’t be bypassed while the dam was built. They actually had to block off half of the river and build one half the first year and the other half the next year. The obstacles overcame on this project are incredible and this truly is an amazing …show more content…
There was a bit to the article that was outside of the thesis but it was all still relevant to the project. This was a very factual article with lots of supporting sources, but was still able to tell the story of the project in a very readable way. It is presented in a combination of chronological order and separated by topics. It starts in chronological discussing how the project was initiated and what had to be done in leading up to construction. Then it goes into topics, discussing the different points mentioned in the thesis. The entire article was very easy to follow, much easier than the combination of methods might lead someone to believe. There was about four diagrams used throughout the article that help to understand the article. Though without some background knowledge of water systems and water management, the visual aids and the article alike would probably not make much sense. There were a number of technical terms that a reader may or may not have been able to determine their meaning based on the context. However even with my very minimal background I had no issues following what was