Goose Lake Dam - Boulder, Colorado

  
   
   
 

 

Materials selected:

45 mil Reinforced Polypropylene

Quantity: 18,900 sq. ft.

Project:
Rehabilitate the original Boulder Dam of the early 1900's for water storage fed by snow melt from the Continental Divide.

Challenge:
 This project involved the installation of a vertical membrane lining system on the face of an existing rock and crib dam structure. The highest section of the dam is 40' and varies in slope from 1:1 to vertical.

The project site, located at over 10,000 ft. in elevation required construction to be completed late in season. Battling high winds and cold temperatures, the project was completed on-time and ready for the safe storage of the critical spring run-off.

Material: The original design called for a 60 mil HDPE liner over a 16 oz. geotextile underlayment fastened into an embed strip poured along the bottom footer of the dam face.

CLI proposed an alternative 45 mil RPP that could be fabricated into 5 panels and installed over the uneven facing provided.

Installation:
The geosynthetic design installed a 16 oz Non-woven geotextile protective layer against the face of the dam with a 45 mil Reinforced Polypropylene (RPP) geomembrane mechanically attached to the top and bottom of the dam.

The advantage of RPP is the ability to pre-fabricate panels to size and limit the number of vertical field welds. This project was installed with only 4 field seams.