Afobaka Dam – 1980s Bulkhead
Suriname Aluminum Company Floating Bulkhead , Suriname , South America
Steel-Fab , a bulkhead fabricator from Fitchburg , Massachusetts , contracted with Suriname Aluminum Company , a subsidiary of Alcoa , to fabricate and deliver a floating bulkhead to the Afobaka Dam in the Republic of Suriname in South America . Steel-Fab partnered with Ayres Associates to design the bulkhead .
The Afobaka Dam was completed in 1964 as part of the Brokopondo Hydroelectric plant . The Brokopondo plant generates 180 megawatts , providing power to about 70 % of the small country of Suriname . Afobaka Dam creates an
Afobaka Dam – Upstream Pier Noses approximately 602-square-mile ( 1,559.2-squarekilometer ) reservoir that stores water during the rainy season and releases it throughout the year for power production . Since the dam was commissioned , the structure ’ s 35-foot-wide-by-45-foot-tall ( 10.7-meter-wide-by-13.7-meter-tall ) tainter gates have never been opened more than 6 inches .
In the early 1980s Suriname Aluminum Company had a four-section , non-floating bulkhead system fabricated . The four units weighed between 40,000 pounds ( 18,143.7 kilograms ) to 71,000 pounds ( 32,205.1 kilograms ). The completed assembly rests on concrete seats at the bottom of the spillway . After the bulkheads were purchased , Suriname Aluminum Company replaced the gantry crane with a crane with a maximum capacity of 48,000 pounds ( 21,772.4 kilograms ).
The new floating bulkhead system ( currently under design ) will consist of 11 caissons , each weighing about 27,000 pounds ( 12,247 kilograms ). The gantry crane will only need to lift one bulkhead at a time and place it on the reservoir for divers to pin together . The lower caissons will be flooded , at which time the bulkhead will rotate vertically and can be positioned upstream of each gate for a full gate testing . Because of the buoyancy of the bulkhead , the load on each concrete seat will be a fraction of the load of the original bulkhead .
6 | THE FLOATING BULKHEAD