Identifying Hazards and Improving Public Safety at Low Head Dams: On-Demand

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Speakers: Paul G. Schweiger, P.E., Vice President, Gannett Fleming, Inc.; and Dr. Bruce A. Tschantz, P.E., Professor Emeritus, University of Tennessee

PDHs: This webinar is eligible for 2 PDH credits.

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.

Paul G. Schweiger, P.E.

Vice President and Manager, Dams and Hydraulics Section

Gannett Fleming, Inc.

Paul is a vice president of Gannett Fleming, Inc. and manager of the firm’s dams and hydraulics section. Paul has been with Gannett Fleming for 37 years. During this time, he has provided engineering consulting services for more than 500 dams throughout the United States, including designing and rehabilitating NRCS dams. Paul served on the National Dam Safety Review Board and led the updating of the national (FEMA) Guidelines for Selecting and Accommodating Inflow Design Floods for Dams and Lessons Learned from Dam Incidents and Failures research project and website. 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. Paul is a frequent instructor of Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO) engineering webinars and seminars.

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.