Ross River Dam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ross River Dam 2007, Thanks to NQ Water for the photo

The Ross River Dam is located at the end of Riverway Drive in the City of Thuringowa.^[1]The dam is the major water supply for the cities of Thuringowa and Townsville,it was constructed in 1971 for the purposes of flood mitigation and water storage. The dam has a capacity of 214000 megalitres (before the upgrade) and an earth rock embankment 8.35 kilometres in length and 27 metres in height (the longest in the southern hemisphere) and occupies a catchment area of 750km2 with a concrete spillway.When the dam spills over it flows into the Ross River, Visitors can view the dam from a viewing platform at Ross park. The Ross Dam Pump Station supplies up to 232 megalitres of water to the Douglas Water Treatment Plant,where the water undergoes aeration, sedimentation, rapid sand filtration and chlorination treatment before being pumped to the Reservoir where the water is distributed to Thuringowa and Townsville. At the base of the Dam and on the banks of the Ross river is Ross Park (part of Riverway) visitors and Tourists can enjoy a Picnic or BBQ at the facilities, public toilets are at this location.

The Upgrade^[2]

2001 - a panel of experts in dam safety and construction undertook a investigation of the dam. Over two years, the panel conducted studies of the dam's construction with the world standards.

2003 - The report confirmed that upgrades were required and by late 2003 The first stage of lowering the spillway by 3.5 metres was underway, the lowering of the existing spillway has been done so the installing of dam gates to control the flow downstream and water storage levels can begin.

2004 - A combined GHD-MWH team was appointed to design the remaining work and manage the project.

2005 - John Holland and Macmahon are awarded the construction contract.

2006 - Construction commenced with Constructing sand filters and supporting earthfill, extra rockwork to the dam embankment and the contraction of the gates.

2007 - Work continues

The Spillway gates will increase the dam's capacity by around nine percent, which is about 21,000 megalitres or four months extra supply of water. Three spillway gates will span the 40 metre wide spillway. The Upgrade will take until mid 2008 to complete unless rainfall delays construction. The cost is expected to be around $115 million.

The dam's storage has been temporarily reduced with the lowering of the spillway however backup water is available by pumping water from the Burdekin Dam if needed.