Clyde Dam

The Clyde Dam is New Zealand's third largest dam, it is located on the Clutha River near the town of Clyde. Owned and operated by Contact Energy.

History

Prehistory

When planning the dam there was considerable controversy because the lake would flood the further upstream location Cromwell many houses and orchards. This also concerned the scenic Cromwell Gorge, which was a highlight of the young, growing the New Zealand tourism industry. Construction of the dam would also necessitate the construction of a highway section. The section of the Otago Central Railway through Clyde also would have to be closed, on the other hand, the material transport would bring to the construction of the dam a significant increase in cargo volume for the rest of forever less congested route. In order to mitigate the adverse consequences, the Labour government under Norman Kirk decided to build a low dam at Clyde. This decision was tipped by the following Government of the National Party, which preferred a high dam.

There was also discussion about whether the dam was necessary at all. The support of the National Party for a controversial aluminum plant at Aramoana, another think- big- project of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon of the late 1970s and early 1980s, was one of the reasons for the construction of the dam. The originally awarded to the owner of water rights were declared due to a revision petition of landowners by the Supreme Court invalidated. National overturned the court ruling by a special law. After negotiations with the Social Credit Party (which the dam was originally refused ) to support the construction of the Clutha Development (Clyde Dam ) Empowering Act was legalized in 1982.

Construction

During construction we made ​​in the surrounding rock firmly microcracks that result from a geological fault below the dam. The construction of the dam therefore had to be revised, a turbine shaft fell off, the capacity dropped from the planned 612 MW to 432 MW. In addition, an expansion joint was installed which allowed the dam at ground motion movement to 1-2 m. A large amount of liquid concrete was pressed to stabilize in the rock to seal leaks. These additional expenses resulted in a considerable excess of the planned cost, the dam was the most expensive in the country. In addition, stabilization works were also necessary because there landslides in the Cromwell Gorge. Over 18 km of drainage tunnels were applied to the gorge, this caused additional costs of nearly 50 % of the originally planned for the dam costs and delayed the filling of Lake Dunstan by a few years

During the construction of the Clyde Dam was used for scenes of the film Shaker Run of 1985.