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PRACTICAL ASPECTS IN THE DESIGN OF A COMPACTED CONCRETE
MIXTURE (RCC) FOR CONSTRUCTION PURPOSES

Absence of a consolidated design method demands work to be planned ahead
in order to obtain a RCC mixture for construction purposes, always having in mind
that laboratory duties must be approached as a mirror image of the production
process at the plant. Review of previous experiences aids in predicting those
setbacks that can emerge often during this stage, as well as in reducing those
repetitive tasks that finally lead to satisfactory end products. This paper includes the
experiences and lessons learned during the final assessment of the borrow sites, the
final design of the RCC mixture for construction purposes and the quality control
during the execution phase in the rehabilitation of the El Guapo Dam, located
approximately at 135 kilometers east of Caracas.
During the heavy rainfalls that affected the entire country on December 1999,
the spillway of El Guapo Dam overcharged leading to its structural collapse and as a
result turned out a failure of 35% of the dam section, therefore emerging the need for
a rehabilitation project. The rehabilitation project consists among other things, in the
reconstruction of a portion of the core of the dam with 350.000 m3 of RCC in order to
support the new spillway, for which the company Harza MWH Inc. was hired to make
the project whereas the execution of the work was awarded to the Brazilian
Company Consorcio Camargo Correa (CCC). Ingeniería Geotécnica Prego, C.A.
was hired as an independent laboratory for materials testing for CCC.
The general characteristics of the El Guapo Dam are the following: height of
the dam: 60m; length of the apex of the dam: 524m; volume of the dam: 2.570 m3;
reservoir capacity; 141.000 m3; reservoir’s surface: 6.000 m2; reservoir’s use:
potable water supply, flood and irrigation control; original spillway capacity:
101,8m3/s; discharge capacity of the new spillway: 2.700 m3/s; spillway type: front,
free.

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