Identifying Hazards and Improving Public Safety at Low Head Dams: Download

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This webinar will provide participants with an understanding of the hidden dangers at low head dams and effective strategies for improving public safety. The instructors will illustrate their presentation with several examples drawn from their own experiences as hydraulic/civil engineers, expert witnesses, authors and engineering designers. Lessons learned from experience with litigation related to drownings at low head dams will be presented. Both non-structural and structural dam modifications to improve public safety will be discussed. Structural dam modifications will emphasize design concepts for modifying low head dams to eliminate the hazardous submerged hydraulic jump, which is the most deadly hazard.

Dr. Bruce A. Tschantz, P.E.

Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee

Bruce A. Tschantz, P.E., is Professor Emeritus in the University of Tennessee’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, where he taught water resources engineering for 37 years.  Dr. Tschantz is currently a Senior Research Associate for the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center and a consulting engineer in Knoxville.  He established FEMA’s Office of Federal Dam Safety where he served as the first Chief of Federal Dam Safety in 1980.  Dr. Tschantz has made many presentations and written several articles on the hydraulics and public safety at low head dams; he has also provided expert testimony related to drownings at low head dams.  He is an Honorary Member in ASDSO, an ASCE Fellow, and is a registered engineer in Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia and Alabama.

Paul G. Schweiger, P.E.

Vice President and Manager, Dams and Hydraulics Section

Gannett Fleming, Inc.

Paul has been with Gannett Fleming for 35 years. During that time, he has provided engineering consulting services for more than 500 dams throughout the United States and Canada. Paul is an approved Federal Energy Regulatory Commission facilitator and Independent Consultant for conducting potential failure modes analysis exercises, Emergency Action Plan exercises, and Part 12 dam assessments. He regularly serves as an expert hydrology and hydraulics engineer on Independent External Peer Review panels for United States Army Corps of Engineers dam and flood control projects and has served on the National Dam Safety Review Board as the Private Sector Representative. Paul is a frequent instructor of Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) engineering seminars. He served on the Board of Consultants for the Oroville Spillway Emergency Recovery Project and is currently serving on several boards of consultants for dam projects throughout the United States.

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