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Title: Downstream Impacts on Geostructures of the Michigan Dam Failures
The breaching of the Edenville dam and overtopping of the Sanford dam on May 19, 2020 have been the focus of significant geotechnical investigation, while considerably less scientific focus has been directed towards documenting the resulting damage to highway embankments, bridges, and homes downstream of the dams. The Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER 2020) Association deployed a small team to conduct field reconnaissance after the event with the goal of making preliminary observations of impacts to geostructures downstream of the Edenville and Sanford dams. Damage was concentrated in the city of Sanford while in the city of Midland, downstream of Sanford, flood waters did not reach heights that caused significant damage to bridges or property. The observations made by the GEER team suggest that bridge abutments, buried utilities in earthen structures, and timber-framed buildings downstream of dams and other high risk flood zones warrant additional considerations during design to increase resilience during extreme events.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1826118
PAR ID:
10338617
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Geo-Congress 2022
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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