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Brilliant Dam—Spillway Isolation Gate System
Castlegar, BC
Dix Corporation was awarded a contract to design/build a Spillway Gate Isolation system that would work on all seven spillways at Brilliant Dam located on the Kootney River in British Columbia, Canada. As with a lot of the early dams, this one was not equipped with stop logs so that the spillway gate could be raised and maintained. The purpose of this project was to rectify that problem. Schnabel Engineering was hired for the design and a local Spokane fabricator was contracted for the fabrication. Before any installation work could begin, Dix had to cut the section of the concrete nosings from each side of the spillways and remove them. Once this was complete the main support beam could be installed. The bulkhead sections could then be floated in the water and moved to the dam. The next step was to let water run into one end of the bulkhead sections, so that they would sink and float vertically. These sections were then placed side by side and bolted into place.
Once everything was in place and sealed the water between the two gates could be removed and maintenance work could begin. This new system can be moved from spillway to spillway with minimal time and effort.
