Ben Norman was seconded into SA Water Corporation to assist the Project Director with the project management of a major engineering upgrade to a earth embankment reservoir originally constructed in 1872.

The upgrade saw a upgrade to the capacity of this major asset that approximately 20-30% of Adelaide’s drinking water is sourced from to resist failure due to

• overtopping during a Probable Maximum Flood (PMF)
• slope instabillity
• piping failure

The loss of any metropolitan reservoir such as this could be catastrophic so the Amercian Committee On Large Dams (ANCOLD) Guidelines were adopted with the oversight of at least 3 globally recognised engineering expert Professors to ensure that the upgrade to a live / operating dam asset was done to international best practices.

This experience gives us a string understanding of the principles of dam and water storage engineering whether this be for drinking water supply, agricultural or industrial and mining purposes.