Other centres - Kariba Dam by Impresit of Italy
The Kariba Dam is a double curvature concrete arch
dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and
Zimbabwe. The dam stands 128 metres (420 ft) tall and 579 metres (1,900
ft) long. The dam forms Lake Kariba, which extends for 280 kilometres
(170 mi) and holds 185 cubic kilometres (150,000,000 acre ft) of water.
Construction
The double curvature concrete arch dam was designed by Coyne et
Bellier and constructed between 1955 and 1959 by Impresit of
Italy at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage with only the
Kariba South power cavern. Final construction and the addition of the
Kariba North Power cavern by Mitchell Construction was not completed
until 1977 due to largely political problems for a total cost of
$480,000,000. During construction, 86 men lost their lives.
The pre-colonial population of the area were
Tonga. The town was established to house workers who were constructing
the dam in the mid to late 1950s and was constructed in 1959 by the contractor
Costain. After the
completion of the dam wall and the power station (Kariba South Power
Station) quite a few impressive monuments were built in the early 1960s
i.e the Roman Catholic church located at the Kariba Heights (St Barbara)
and next to it the Pat McClean Theatre named after Patricia McClean a
well known wealthy resident of Kariba Heights.
Design Institute of Civil Engineers
Design by Gibb Coyne-Sogei
Dam design
Design - coffer dam and turbines
