November 2017 - Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (SR1 - Project) Calgary, Alberta

Wednesday, November 15, 2017 - 05:30 PM

The Sharonville Convention Center hosted the November ASCE Cincinnati Section meeting on November 15th.  Thanks to all who joined the ASCE Cincinnati Section for a very informative presentation by John Menninger of Stantec which covered the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir Project in Calgary, Alberta. In 2013, the province of Alberta suffered billions of dollars of damage due to flooding. The group learned about the exciting flood mitigation project (diversion structure and dry storage reservoir) that the local engineering firm is working on to help limit the impact of flooding. John discussed the interesting features of the design including the physical modeling aspects of the project that led to changes between 30% and 60% design to mitigate impacts expected from sediment, rocks, and debris.

The group learned that during a flood event, a diversion channel would convey water from the Elbow River to an off-stream reservoir, which would have a storage capacity of 70.2 million cubic meters or about 28,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. When peak waters have passed, an outlet structure is designed to safely release the water back to the Elbow River in a controlled manner.