Gleno Dam

Breakage during Erststau 1923

The glenoid Dam ( Diga del glenoid ) in the Valle di Scalve (Val di Scalve ) in the Province of Bergamo in Italy broke out on December 1, 1923; in the disaster, several hundred people died.

The dam

The dam was built from 1918 to 1923. She was a buttress dam ( arch dam row ) of masonry and one of the first of its kind Originally a curved gravity dam was planned. The Gorge Taluntergrund was initially closed with a 23 m high plug of rubble masonry. Thus, there was the lower part of the dam from a gravity dam, which was 27 m wide and 80 m long. For economical reasons, the planning for the upper 29.5 m high part was converted to a series of vaulted dam. Before it was approved, the dam was built and saved half of the construction costs. Your name, they had of the 2852 m high mountain Monte glenoid.

The dam was a total of approximately 52.5 m high and 260 m long. Other definitions speak of 56, 43.6, 35 or 29 m height and 225 or 150 m in length. The storage capacity of the reservoir was according to different specifications 3.9 or 5.4 million cubic meters and the lake was 4 km long. The height of the water surface with full back was on 1548m above sea level. The dam served the hydroelectric power generation; the power plant had an output of 3728 kW.

The break

The dam broke shortly after completion of the Erststau when it was impounded after heavy rainfall to overflow, on December 1, 1923 at about 7:15 clock. The cause was structural failure by sliding; the wall slid down on the plug and on the smooth rock. The town center was destroyed Bueggio. The number of deaths is given as 356, 500 or 600. The tidal wave finally flowed into Lake Iseo.

The dam was not rebuilt. On the road from Colere after Vilminore near the village Pianezza you can see the ruins of the dam.