Analysis and Remediation of the Pinopolis Dam
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Presented @ USSD Conference in Charleston 2003 ANALYSIS AND REMEDIATION OF THE PINOPOLIS DAM Mark Carter P.E.1 Ray Pinson E.I.T.2 Steve Collins P.E., Ph.D.3 Paul Rizzo P.E., Ph.D.4 ABSTRACT During the course of routine review and analysis Santee Cooper, their consultants, and the FERC determined that the Pinopolis Dams did not have an adequate margin of safety against failure during and immediately subsequent to a postulated recurrence of the famous 1886 Charleston Earthquake. Subsequent soil testing, computer stability analyses, research of remedial alternatives, and implementation of a pilot testing program led to a seismic mitigation plan that was engineered to include state of the art ground modification in conjunction with downstream berms. In all, the work consisted of constructing nearly 3,500 column elements requiring over 30,000 tons of rock, installing over 10 miles of perforated drainage pipe, and placing nearly 310,000 cubic yards of berm material over the top of the stone column areas at various locations along the 6-miles of dam. This paper summarizes the evaluation of project parameters such as seismic loading and soil properties, the various remedial alternatives considered, the engineering calculations associated with the selected remediation scheme, and the construction methods used during implementation of the Pinopolis East Dam Seismic Mitigation Project. INTRODUCTION The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) mandates periodic inspections and review of design basis for all licensed hydroelectric projects in the United States. During the course of routine review and analysis Santee Cooper, their consultants, and the FERC determined that the Pinopolis Dams did not have an adequate margin of safety against failure during and immediately subsequent to a postulated recurrence of the famous 1886 Charleston Earthquake. The Pinopolis Dams essentially consist of three earthen embankments, named the West Dam, East Dam, and the East Dam Extension as shown in plan view on Figure 1. The West Dam and East Dam are separated by a concrete gravity section that includes a lock 1 Manager, General Construction, Santee Cooper, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 2 Principal Engineer, General Construction, Santee Cooper, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 3 Lead Engineer, Division of Dam Safety and Inspections, FERC Atlanta Regional Office, 3125 Presidential Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30340 4 Principal, Paul C. Rizzo & Assoc., Expo Mart Suite 270-E, Monroeville, PA 15146 Presented @ USSD Conference in Charleston 2003 to allow navigation between the Cooper River and the impounded Lake Moultrie. The SANTEE RIVER East Dam Extension East Dam West Dam COOPER RIVER Figure 1. Location of the Pinopolis Dams in Eastern South Carolina West Dam was remediated during the late 1980’s by constructing downstream bolster sections in those areas where the foundation sand was particularly loose. At these bolster sections, the loose sand was over-excavated and replaced as structural fill. The remediation of the East Dam and the East Dam Extension, which are founded on loose sands similar to the West Dam, are the subject of this paper. Initial stability analyses resulted in acceptable factors of safety for the structures under static conditions. However, factors of safety representing post-seismic stability were found to be less than 1.0 following dynamic loading with a 0.42g peak horizontal acceleration. Following several years of soil borings, laboratory tests, computer stability analyses, and research of remedial alternatives, a remediation program was developed which consisted of two main elements - (1) stone columns designed to relieve excess dynamic pore pressure and (2) a downstream berm of varying height over the stone columns. The following sections discuss the design and construction aspects for seismic mitigation of the Pinopolis East Dam and East Dam Extension. Presented @ USSD Conference in Charleston 2003 GENERAL INFORMATION The Santee Cooper Hydroelectric Project was constructed from 1939 to 1942 in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression on the poverty-stricken Southeast. Over 156,000 acres of bottomland were impounded to form Lakes Marion and Moultrie which are connected by a 6.5-mile canal. At the time of construction, Santee Cooper was boasted as being the largest land-clearing project on the North American subcontinent while nearly 40 miles of dams and dikes were constructed in order to generate hydroelectric power for the region. The Pinopolis Dams were constructed to impound the 60,000-acre water body, Lake Moultrie. The dams are compacted-fill earthen structures having a combined total length of 7.5 miles. They are located in the vicinity of Moncks Corner, South Carolina as indicated in Figure 1. The dams and powerhouse are approximately 35 miles upstream of Charleston, SC and the Atlantic Ocean. The Santee Cooper Project, which combined the Santee and Cooper Rivers to form the two connected lakes, is situated on the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The foundation soils in this part of the Coastal Plain consist generally of about 70 feet of sand, silty sand, and clay overlying the dense, somewhat cemented Cooper Formation. The Cooper Formation is the preferred founding medium for most foundations in the Charleston area. The dams were constructed 60 years ago over a layer of relatively low-blow-count natural material that is subject to liquefaction during a substantial seismic event. This layer is generally 15 to 20 feet below the ground surface at the toe of the dam and varies from 5 to 10 feet in thickness. The weak layer overlies the Cooper Formation as shown in Figure 2. The residual strength of this loose sand is very low, in the range of 100 psf, as determined from back-calculation of known liquefaction failures, both static and dynamic, as shown later in Figure 3c. Presented @ USSD Conference in Charleston 2003 Figure 2. Typical Cross Section of the Pinopolis East Dam The stiff clay and clayey sands above the liquefied layers of loose sand are relatively dense and the dam embankment is a well-compacted, low-plasticity clay (CL). The maximum embankment height found near the powerhouse is approximately 60 feet above the downstream toe; however, the average embankment height over the entire 6-mile length is around 28 feet. The crest is approximately 20 feet wide with a typical top elevation of 88.0 MSL. The upstream face is covered with 10 inches of porous concrete for slope protection and is inclined at an average 2.8 horizontal (H):1 vertical (V). The downstream slope of the dams are grassed and inclined at an average 2.25H:1V. The normal pool lake elevation is 75.0 MSL, which equates to 13 foot of freeboard for the impoundment structures. The controlling earthquake in the area, and for a major portion of the East Coast of the United States, is a postulated recurrence of the 1886 Charleston Earthquake. The epicenter of this event is estimated to have been near Summerville, SC northwest of Charleston and the scene of numerous low magnitude events—as many as two or three per year. The 1886 event was felt as far away as New York and Pittsburgh and caused extensive damage in the Charleston Area, including liquefaction. Paleoseismic investigations conducted over the past 20 years have yielded evidence of prior events large enough to cause liquefaction, with a recurrence interval estimated at approximately 450 years. The Modified Mercalli Intensity of the 1886 Event is estimated to be in the range of X near its epicenter. Moment magnitude estimates (there were no records) range from 6.9 to 7.6, but most professionals accept M 7.3 as being a reasonable estimate. A recurrence of this event near its epicenter is estimated to cause a peak ground acceleration at the East Dam of 0.42g. This estimate is the basis of the seismic design criteria adopted for this remediation project. Initial post-seismic stability analyses used the conventional and generally accepted effective stress approach with estimated excess pore pressures in the non-liquefied stiff clays of the foundation and embankment. This approach lead to factors of safety of approximately 0.6 to 0.7 at various cross sections. At this time (1994), Dr. Collins joined the regulatory oversight team and recommended modification of two important factors in the stability analyses, namely: • Use of undrained shear strengths for the stiff, low permeablity clayey soils, • For wedge or sliding block failure mechanisms, change from the Spencer solution method to the Lowe & Karafiath procedure, also commonly called the Corps of Engineers' method. This change was in solution techniques only, and did not incorporate the strength interpolation procedures ascribed to these methods. Presented @ USSD Conference in Charleston 2003 The reasons for and implication to stability of these modifications are as follows: The first recommendation acknowledges that the two-step stability analysis developed by John Lowe et al, using undrained strengths for the embankment and stiff foundation strata, would better represent a potential dam slope failure in the moments and first several days following an earthquake at this particular site. In this short time frame, the low permeability soils must fail undrained, neither expelling nor taking up water. Migration of pore pressures from the deep liquefied stratum and from the reservoir would eventually eliminate the negative pore pressure effects that provide relatively high, undrained strengths in stiff soils. To prevent the migration tendency, a row of closely spaced drains at the downstream toe, that would bleed off the elevated pore pressures in the liquefied zone, was mandated as a minimal requirement whenever undrained strengths of non-liquefiable soils was used. Finite difference analyses concluded that these liquefied strata pore pressures would be significantly reduced after two days by the effective drainage into stone/sand columns at the toe. The second recommendation arose when noting that the inter-slice force for wedge failure surfaces was nearly horizontal when using the Spencer solution routine, implying no shear interaction between blocks.