Identifying Hazards and Improving Public Safety at Low Head Dams

This webinar will provide participants with an understanding of the hidden dangers at low head dams and effective strategies for improving public safety. The instructors will illustrate their presentation with several examples drawn from their own experiences as hydraulic/civil engineers, expert witnesses, authors and engineering designers. Lessons learned from experience with litigation related to drownings at low head dams will be presented. Both non-structural and structural dam modifications to improve public safety will be discussed. Structural dam modifications will emphasize design concepts for modifying low head dams to eliminate the hazardous submerged hydraulic jump, which is the most deadly hazard.

Presented by Bruce A. Tschantz, P.E., F. ASCE, Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee – Knoxville and Paul G. Schweiger, P.E., Vice President, Gannett Fleming, Inc.