St. Francis Dam Failure
This online engineering 2 PDH interactive presentation provides guidance on the construction of the St. Francis Dam and the reasons behind its failure.
The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was built between the years of 1924 and 1926 to serve Los Angeles's growing water needs. It failed catastrophically near midnight of March 12th-13th, 1928 due to a defective soil foundation and design flaws, triggering a flood that claimed the lives of at least 432 people and causing property damage worth more than $7 million.
This 2 PDH online interactive presentation is intended primarily for designers, civil and geotechnical engineers responsible for designing, constructing and maintaining dams.
This continuing education interactive presentation is intended to provide you with the following specific knowledge and skills:
- To know the reason behind building the Saint Francis Dam
- To identify the history and background of choosing the Saint Francis Dam
- To understand the geographic location and timeline of its design and construction
- To know the observations of the eye witnesses after the failure
- To understand the missing engineering concepts that lead to its failure
- To know the effect of the material quality and construction process on the dam
- To identify how the failure occurred and how it could have been prevented
- To know the lessons learned from this accident and its benefits to society
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