Ahead of its time: The Hoover Dam

As far as Reddy Kancharla is concerned, only a handful of civil works stand out and remain to be recognized even so many years after they have been constructed. One of these engineering marvels is the Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam located in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, just on the border between Arizona and Nevada. It certainly was not an easy structure to build, considering the technology available during the 1930s when its building blocks were first set. This feat displayed much ingenuity, especially because it required the gargantuan task of taming the Colorado River, one of the wildest rivers on the planet, notes Reddy Kancharla.

The river had to be diverted around the dam site through four 50-diameter tunnels drilled through canyon walls and positioned on each side of the river. The dam itself is filled with mazes of long hallways and more tunnels that amounted to two miles. Much equipment was put in place in these inner tunnels, mainly to measure temperature, stress, and strain.

For the dam to withstand the pressure of such a violent river, engineers thought of a brilliant idea to design the dam so that it would be arched instead of straight across. This way, the bulk of the pressure is diverted to the canyon walls. The Hoover Dam also makes use of a brilliantly crafted keyway, which makes each block interlock. This means that the more pressure is put on the dam, the stronger the wall becomes.

Today, the dam generates electricity for three key economic areas. Specifically, 66% of its power goes to Southern California, 25% to Southern Nevada, and 19% to Arizona. Without the massive wall that makes up Hoover Dam, Boulder City, Nevada, wouldn't even exist.

Reddy Kancharla has been involved in many projects over the years. These include various high-rise developments in New York City, the USTA National Tennis Center, Yankee Stadium, the Giants/Jets Stadium, and Terminals 1, 4, 5 and 7 of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Airport. For more information, visit this page.