Water Wheel July/August 2010

Abstract

Letters Your article on the Gariep Dam in the latest Water Wheel (May/June 2010) refers. I came on to the project in May 1963 in the London design office of Sir Alexander Gibb under the direction of Dr Henry Olivier and after a spell in the design office came out to the site in 1967 and stayed until initial commissioning in August 1971. So I have a few insights and comments that may be of interest. There were two consulting teams involved. IORCC as you mentioned, which did the townships and the French part of the consortium did the arch dam. The second firm was a British/South African team of Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners and Hawkins, Hawkins & Osborn who operated as Gibb Hawkins and Partners (GHP). We were responsible for all the hydraulic structures including the spillways and all the other outlets and control structures. We also developed the operating systems for the spillways. IORCC led the site team at Gariep and GHP led the site team at Vanderkloof. When we started the dam was called Ruigtevallei and the Hendrik Verwoerd name came later.

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