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| Gileppe Dam | |
|---|---|
 View from above in April 2007 | |
  Location of Gileppe Dam in Belgium | |
| Official name | Barrage de la Gileppe (French) |
| Location | Jalhay, Liège province, Wallonia, Belgium |
| Coordinates | 50°35′21″N 5°58′28″E / 50.58917°N 5.97444°E |
| Construction began | 1868 (heightened 1967–71) |
| Opening date | 28 July 1878[1] |
| Construction cost | 4,549,000 Belgian fr.[2] ($874,000,[3] £182,000[4]) |
| Owner(s) | Wallonia |
| Operator(s) | Service public de Wallonie (SPW) |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Gravity dam (masonry earth- and rockfill)[1] |
| Impounds | Gileppe river |
| Height | 1878: 51.76 metres Present: 68 metres[5] |
| Length | 365 meters[6] |
| Width (base) | 66 metres[7] |
| Dam volume | 248480.3 m3 |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Lake Gileppe |
| Total capacity | 26,400,000 m3[8] |
| Surface area | 130 hectares[9] |
| Power Station | |
| Turbines | two horizontal Francis-type |
| Installed capacity | 0.633 MW |
| Annual generation | 3.3 million kWh[10] |
The Gileppe Dam (French Barrage de la Gileppe) is an arch-gravity dam on the Gileppe river in Jalhay, Liège province, Wallonia, Belgium. It was built in the 1870s to supply water for the wool industry in nearby Verviers. The monumental structure with its unusually thick profile played an important role in establishing an international standard for masonry gravity dams as a technology for major water supply systems.[11] It was considered one of the strongest dams in Europe at the time,[12] and it was the first dam built in modern Belgium.[13] In the first decade of the 21st century, it was noted as supplying most of the drinking water for Verviers, as well as industrial water, and as producing hydroelectricity.[14]
- ^ a b Structurae, Gileppe Dam
- ^ M. Bodnon, E. Detienne, F. LeClercq, "Le Barrage de la Gileppe," Revue universelle des mines, de la métallurgie, de travaux publics 39 (1876), p. 650.
- ^ Estimate in dollars by Wegmann, p. 82.
- ^ Estimate in pounds given by Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 48 (1877), p. 314.
- ^ Structurae, Gileppe Dam; Wegmann, Design and Construction of Dams, p. 81, give a height of 47 metres (154.2 feet) for the original structure.
- ^ According to Structurae. The crest length of the original construction is given as 235 metres (771 feet) and base length as 82 metres (269 feet) by Edward Wegmann, The Design and Construction of Dams (New York, 1907, 5th ed.), p. 81.
- ^ Wegmann gives 15 metres (49.22 feet) for the width at the top and 65.82 metres (216.5 feet) at the base
- ^ Belgian Tourist Office: Wallonia and Brussels, Gileppe Dam. The original capacity was 12,000,000m3, according to Easton Devonshire, "The Gileppe Dam," Transactions of the British Association of Waterworks Engineers 9 (1904), p. 270.
- ^ Originally the reservoir covered 80 hectares, according to Devonshire, Transactions, p. 270.
- ^ Historique du Barrage de la Gileppe
- ^ David P. Billington and Donald C. Jackson, Big Dams of the New Deal Era: A Confluence of Engineering and Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), p. 34 online.
- ^ R.S. Kirby, P.G. Laurson, The Early Years of Modern Civil Engineering (Yale University Press, 1932), p. 209.
- ^ Easton Devonshire, "The Gileppe Dam," Transactions of the British Association of Waterworks Engineers 9 (1904), p. 263 online, quoting a report to the Belgian government by the project's chief engineer.
- ^ David Aubin and Frédéric Varone, EUwareness Case Study Report 1: Vesdre River Basin, Belgium (Université Catholique de Louvain, 2002), pp. 7 and 15.