Gileppe Dam
Encyclopedia
The Gileppe Dam is an arch-gravity dam
on the Gileppe
river in Jalhay
, Liège province
, Wallonia, Belgium
. It was built in the 1870s to supply water for the wool
industry in nearby Verviers
. The monumental structure with its unusually thick profile
played an important role in establishing an international standard for masonry
gravity dams as a technology for major water supply systems
. It was considered one of the strongest dam
s in Europe at the time, and it was the first dam built in modern Belgium. In the first decade of the 21st century, it supplies most of the drinking water
for Verviers, as well as industrial water, and produces hydroelectricity
.
for Verviers, the center of the wool industry in Belgium. Wool was imported through Antwerp and washed at Verviers, situated between the Ardennes
and Belgium's Carboniferous region, before it was shipped for manufacture in Germany and Austria. Wool washing was facilitated by the high acidity
of the water. Originally, the industry's water source was the Vesdre
river, which proved to be insufficient; moreover, water was returned to the river so polluted
that it destroyed the fish population
and was blamed for the spread of malaria
downstream. In the summer, when water levels were at their lowest, the industry faced shortages, and the local population relied on a limited supply of drinking water from springs
. A dam was proposed, with studies to be undertaken by the engineer
Bidaut. The goal was to provide the river Vesdre with about 3,000,000 cubic meters of water for the year, and 14,600,704 cubic meters to industry (8,808,000 gallons a day). After delays, a design was submitted in 1868 to the Minister of Public Works
.
The main function of the Gileppe Dam in the 21st century is to provide drinking water. As these needs are met, surplus water is turbinated. In 1997, the Gileppe Dam produced 3,255,525 cubic meters of drinking water. Although capacity is small, the Vesdre basin is one of the few places in Belgium to produce hydropower.
assigned the study of the water supply to Bidaut, a chief engineer within the ministry, in September 1857. Originally the plan was to impound the upper Vesdre, in a joint project with the town of Eupen
, also located within the watershed
and at that time part of Prussia
. These negotiations collapsed by 1864, and Bidaut turned his attention to the Gileppe, a tributary of the Vesdre entirely within the jurisdiction of the Belgian ministry. Throughout the 1860s, Bidaut undertook engineering studies for the reservoir
with Donckier and Jamblinnes. Water distribution was studied by Cariez and Moulon. The site chosen for the dam is 1500 meters from the confluence of the Gileppe and Vesdre, where the valley narrows and the geological formation allowed for building the axis of the dam parallel to that of the vertical rock strata.
Bidaut was influenced in particular by dams at Alicante in Spain and Furens in France. The dam's "extremely conservative proportions" were shaped by the engineering ideas of J. Augustine DeSazilly
, F. Emile Delocre, and W.J.M. Rankine
. The plan was accepted in 1867. The contractors were Braive and Caillet.
numbering from 80 to 100, under the direction of eight to ten foremen.
Before the foundations were laid, two subterranean channels were dug, one on each side, through which the Gileppe river was diverted during construction. Afterward, these became conduits for cast-iron outlet pipes used to draw water from two 2.8m-diameter wells placed in the reservoir.
The foundations were sunk to a depth of 1 meter into the rock. The wall was constructed of rubble masonry
in a total amount of 248480 cubic meters (325,000 cubic yards). The faces are finished with shaped blocks, between .45 and .3m thick and .6–.4m long. The ends dovetail into solid rock, cut into 1m steps. The sandstone or limestone for the wall came from area quarries
located no closer than 50 meters (164 feet) from the site and at a higher elevation than the crown. Building materials were transported on two narrow-gauge railways. The grouting for the rubble blocks was compacted from four parts sand, one part trass
delivered in lumps from Andernach
, and five parts slaked lime from Tournai
, which was known for the quality of its hydraulic lime
.
It was remarked as late as 1907 that "the average yearly work of over 54,000 cubic yards has probably never been surpassed in the construction of any other single structure." The daily work per man averaged 2.6 to 3.2 cubic yards (1.98–2.44 cubic meters).
Flood waters were released through two overflow weir
s, 25 meters wide (82 feet), situated 2 meters (6.58 feet) below the crown and following the slopes of the hillside.
The dam was inaugurated 28 July 1878 by King Leopold II
.
The profile was criticized as overengineered. An estimated 75 percent of its masonry was considered "useless," in contrast to the "scientific design" of the Furens Dam. This overbuilding was attributed to "a great timidity on the part of the Belgian engineers, who were fully impressed with the great body of water they were going to store … and the calamity the failure of the dam would cause." While recognizing that the amount of water the Gileppe dam would retain far exceeded that of its predecessors at Alicante and Furens, the engineers themselves also maintained that they were allowing for a heightening of the dam in future, should the need arise for greater storage. By the 1960s, it had been decided that the dam did indeed require an increase of height. From 1967 to 1971, it was raised by a little over 16 meters. The dam was reinaugurated 20 October 1971 under King Baudouin.
The high acidity of the water corroded the original 19th-century lead pipes and led to lead poisoning
in the area. One report claims that the faculty of medicine at Verviers began to study the problem, but had to drop their research "under pressure from the industrialists." Treating the water to make it less acidic would decrease its efficiency in washing wool. The solution was to lay pipe to divert water for industrial use from a treatment plant to improve drinking quality. The plant has been operational since 1992.
created by Belgian artist Antoine-Félix Bouré
, noted for his public lions in Brussels
and Charleroi
. Formed of 183 blocks of sandstone from the Sûre
valley in Luxembourg
, it weighs 300 tonne
s (nearly 661,387 pounds) and stands 13.5 meters tall (over 44 feet). In 1970, during work to heighten the dam, the lion was dismantled and moved as a precaution. After the dam construction was completed, it took 40 days to restore the lion to its eastward-facing position atop the wall. A lion is sometimes used as an emblem in promotional materials and tourist brochures for the Vesdre area.
Arch-gravity dam
An arch-gravity dam, curved-gravity dam or arched dam is a dam with the characteristics of both an arch dam and a gravity dam. It is a dam that curves upstream in a narrowing curve that directs most of the water against the canyon rock walls, providing the force to compress the dam...
on the Gileppe
Gileppe
The Gileppe is a river in Belgium with a length of about 20 km. It is a left tributary of the Vesdre. Its source is in the High Fens of eastern Belgium. The Gileppe flows through an artificial lake , built in 1867-1878 and enlarged to 1.3 square kilometres in 1968-1971, creaed by the Gileppe Dam...
river in Jalhay
Jalhay
Jalhay is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege. On January 1, 2006 Jalhay had a total population of 7,953. The total area is 107.75 km² which gives a population density of 74 inhabitants per km². The highest point of the municipality is the...
, Liège province
Liège (province)
Liège is the easternmost province of Belgium and belongs to the Walloon Region. It is an area of French and German ethnicity. It borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and in Belgium the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Walloon Brabant , and those of Flemish Brabant and Limburg . Its...
, Wallonia, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. It was built in the 1870s to supply water for the wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
industry in nearby Verviers
Verviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
. The monumental structure with its unusually thick profile
Profile (engineering)
In standardization, a profile consists of an agreed-upon subset and interpretation of a specification. Many complex technical specifications have many optional features, such that two conforming implementations may not inter-operate due to choosing different sets of optional features to support...
played an important role in establishing an international standard for masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
gravity dams as a technology for major water supply systems
Water supply network
A water supply system or water supply network is a system of engineered hydrologic and hydraulic components which provide water supply. A water supply system typically includes:# A drainage basin ;...
. It was considered one of the strongest dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s in Europe at the time, and it was the first dam built in modern Belgium. In the first decade of the 21st century, it supplies most of the drinking water
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
for Verviers, as well as industrial water, and produces hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
.
Background
In the 19th century, the dam was built to ensure the water supplyWater supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
for Verviers, the center of the wool industry in Belgium. Wool was imported through Antwerp and washed at Verviers, situated between the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
and Belgium's Carboniferous region, before it was shipped for manufacture in Germany and Austria. Wool washing was facilitated by the high acidity
PH indicator
A pH indicator is a halochromic chemical compound that is added in small amounts to a solution so that the pH of the solution can be determined visually. Hence a pH indicator is a chemical detector for hydronium ions or hydrogen ions in the Arrhenius model. Normally, the indicator causes the...
of the water. Originally, the industry's water source was the Vesdre
Vesdre
thumb|right|250px|The course of the VesdreThe Weser or Vesdre is a river in eastern Belgium, in the province of Liège, and is a right tributary to the river Ourthe. Its source lies in the High Fens , close to the border with Germany near Monschau...
river, which proved to be insufficient; moreover, water was returned to the river so polluted
Water pollution
Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies . Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds....
that it destroyed the fish population
Population dynamics of fisheries
A fishery is an area with an associated fish or aquatic population which is harvested for its commercial or recreational value. Fisheries can be wild or farmed. Population dynamics describes the ways in which a given population grows and shrinks over time, as controlled by birth, death, and...
and was blamed for the spread of malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
downstream. In the summer, when water levels were at their lowest, the industry faced shortages, and the local population relied on a limited supply of drinking water from springs
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
. A dam was proposed, with studies to be undertaken by the engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
Bidaut. The goal was to provide the river Vesdre with about 3,000,000 cubic meters of water for the year, and 14,600,704 cubic meters to industry (8,808,000 gallons a day). After delays, a design was submitted in 1868 to the Minister of Public Works
Minister of Public Works (Belgium)
The Public Works ministers in Belgium are the political ministers responsible for public works.-Flanders:*1988-1992 Johan Sauwens *1992-1995 Theo Kelchtermans *1995-1999 Eddy Baldewijns *1999-2003 Steve Stevaert...
.
The main function of the Gileppe Dam in the 21st century is to provide drinking water. As these needs are met, surplus water is turbinated. In 1997, the Gileppe Dam produced 3,255,525 cubic meters of drinking water. Although capacity is small, the Vesdre basin is one of the few places in Belgium to produce hydropower.
Planning and design
The Belgian governmentBelgian federal government
The Cabinet of Belgium is the executive branch of the Belgian federal government, consisting of ministers and secretaries of state drawn from the political parties which form the governing coalition. Formally, the ministers are appointed by the King...
assigned the study of the water supply to Bidaut, a chief engineer within the ministry, in September 1857. Originally the plan was to impound the upper Vesdre, in a joint project with the town of Eupen
Eupen
Eupen is a municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border , from the Dutch border and from the "High Fens" nature reserve...
, also located within the watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
and at that time part of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
. These negotiations collapsed by 1864, and Bidaut turned his attention to the Gileppe, a tributary of the Vesdre entirely within the jurisdiction of the Belgian ministry. Throughout the 1860s, Bidaut undertook engineering studies for the reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
with Donckier and Jamblinnes. Water distribution was studied by Cariez and Moulon. The site chosen for the dam is 1500 meters from the confluence of the Gileppe and Vesdre, where the valley narrows and the geological formation allowed for building the axis of the dam parallel to that of the vertical rock strata.
Bidaut was influenced in particular by dams at Alicante in Spain and Furens in France. The dam's "extremely conservative proportions" were shaped by the engineering ideas of J. Augustine DeSazilly
J. Augustine DeSazilly
J. Augustine DeSazilly was a French engineer.In the early 1850s, DeSazilly published a paper postulating the "profile of equal resistance," a major theoretical advance in the technology of masonry gravity dams, based on the hydrostatic force exerted by a given height of water in relation to the...
, F. Emile Delocre, and W.J.M. Rankine
William John Macquorn Rankine
William John Macquorn Rankine was a Scottish civil engineer, physicist and mathematician. He was a founding contributor, with Rudolf Clausius and William Thomson , to the science of thermodynamics....
. The plan was accepted in 1867. The contractors were Braive and Caillet.
Original construction
Work began in 1868 and continued for ten years. The dam was built by a crew of masonsMasonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
numbering from 80 to 100, under the direction of eight to ten foremen.
Before the foundations were laid, two subterranean channels were dug, one on each side, through which the Gileppe river was diverted during construction. Afterward, these became conduits for cast-iron outlet pipes used to draw water from two 2.8m-diameter wells placed in the reservoir.
The foundations were sunk to a depth of 1 meter into the rock. The wall was constructed of rubble masonry
Rubble masonry
Rubble masonry is rough, unhewn building stone set in mortar, but not laid in regular courses. It may appear as the outer surface of a wall or may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or cut stone....
in a total amount of 248480 cubic meters (325,000 cubic yards). The faces are finished with shaped blocks, between .45 and .3m thick and .6–.4m long. The ends dovetail into solid rock, cut into 1m steps. The sandstone or limestone for the wall came from area quarries
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
located no closer than 50 meters (164 feet) from the site and at a higher elevation than the crown. Building materials were transported on two narrow-gauge railways. The grouting for the rubble blocks was compacted from four parts sand, one part trass
Trass
Trass is the local name of a volcanic tuff occurring in the Eifel, where it is worked for hydraulic mortar. It is a grey or cream-coloured fragmental rock, largely composed of pumiceous dust, and may be regarded as a trachytic tuff. It much resembles the Italian pozzolana and is applied to like...
delivered in lumps from Andernach
Andernach
Andernach is a town in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, of currently about 30,000 inhabitants. It is situated towards the end of the Neuwied basin on the left bank of the Rhine between the former tiny fishing village of Fornich in the north and the mouth of the...
, and five parts slaked lime from Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
, which was known for the quality of its hydraulic lime
Hydraulic lime
Hydraulic lime is a variety of lime, a slaked lime used to make lime mortar. Hydraulicity is the ability of lime to set under water. Hydraulic lime is produced by heating calcining limestone that contains clay and other impurities. Calcium reacts in the kiln with the clay minerals to produce...
.
It was remarked as late as 1907 that "the average yearly work of over 54,000 cubic yards has probably never been surpassed in the construction of any other single structure." The daily work per man averaged 2.6 to 3.2 cubic yards (1.98–2.44 cubic meters).
Flood waters were released through two overflow weir
Weir
A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...
s, 25 meters wide (82 feet), situated 2 meters (6.58 feet) below the crown and following the slopes of the hillside.
The dam was inaugurated 28 July 1878 by King Leopold II
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
.
Problems
When the reservoir was first filled, water leaked through the dam at a rate of about 5,300 gallons a day. Although the leakage slowed, four years later moisture could still be observed on the downstream face.The profile was criticized as overengineered. An estimated 75 percent of its masonry was considered "useless," in contrast to the "scientific design" of the Furens Dam. This overbuilding was attributed to "a great timidity on the part of the Belgian engineers, who were fully impressed with the great body of water they were going to store … and the calamity the failure of the dam would cause." While recognizing that the amount of water the Gileppe dam would retain far exceeded that of its predecessors at Alicante and Furens, the engineers themselves also maintained that they were allowing for a heightening of the dam in future, should the need arise for greater storage. By the 1960s, it had been decided that the dam did indeed require an increase of height. From 1967 to 1971, it was raised by a little over 16 meters. The dam was reinaugurated 20 October 1971 under King Baudouin.
The high acidity of the water corroded the original 19th-century lead pipes and led to lead poisoning
Lead poisoning
Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...
in the area. One report claims that the faculty of medicine at Verviers began to study the problem, but had to drop their research "under pressure from the industrialists." Treating the water to make it less acidic would decrease its efficiency in washing wool. The solution was to lay pipe to divert water for industrial use from a treatment plant to improve drinking quality. The plant has been operational since 1992.
The lion
The dam was topped by a monumental lion sculptureMonumental sculpture
The term monumental sculpture is often used in art history and criticism, but not always consistently. It combines two concepts, one of function, and one of size, and may include an element of a third more subjective concept. It is often used for all sculptures that are large...
created by Belgian artist Antoine-Félix Bouré
Antoine-Félix Bouré
Antoine-Félix Bouré , known in his own time as Félix Bouré but sometimes found in modern scholarship as Antoine Bouré, was a Belgian sculptor, best known for his monumental lions.-Life and career:...
, noted for his public lions in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
. Formed of 183 blocks of sandstone from the Sûre
Sure
"Sure" was the fifteenth single by the Japanese j-pop group Every Little Thing, released on February 16, 2000. It was used as the drama Virtual Girl's theme song.-Chart positions:-External links:* information at Avex Network.* information at Oricon....
valley in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, it weighs 300 tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s (nearly 661,387 pounds) and stands 13.5 meters tall (over 44 feet). In 1970, during work to heighten the dam, the lion was dismantled and moved as a precaution. After the dam construction was completed, it took 40 days to restore the lion to its eastward-facing position atop the wall. A lion is sometimes used as an emblem in promotional materials and tourist brochures for the Vesdre area.
Selected bibliography
- M. Bodnon, E. Detienne, F. LeClercq, "Le Barrage de la Gileppe," Revue universelle des mines, de la métallurgie, de travaux publics 39 (1876) 610–650, full text online.
- Easton Devonshire, "The Gileppe Dam," Transactions of the British Association of Waterworks Engineers 9 (1904) 262–270. Detailed description (in English) of the works, based on Bodnon, Detienne, and LeClercq.
- Abstract in English translation of Bodson, Detienne, and LeClercq in Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 48 (1877), pp. 312–314.
- Edward Wegmann, The Design and Construction of Dams (New York, 1907, 5th ed.).
- Informational sign at the dam.
Further reading
- Paul Delforge, "Le Barrage de la Gileppe: Un financement des industriels, de la ville our de l'état?" Revue Belge d'Histoire Contemporaine/Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis 17 (1986) 163–186.