Chapter 10: Dams with asphaltic membranes or cores

The use of bitumen to provide an impermeable upstream facing for a dam is thought to go back to about 1300 BC, with the construction of the Assur dam in Mesopotamia (ICOLD, 1999).

Modern construction using bituminous concrete facings started in 1910 with the construction of the 17 m-high Central Dam in the USA. This was essentially a development of the use of bituminous materials for highway construction. Many more of this type of dam followed and, at the time of the publication of ICOLD Bulletin 114 in 1999, there were about 350 asphalt faced rockfill dams in the world.

Chapter 10 discusses both dams with upstream asphaltic membranes and dams with asphaltic concrete cores. Although little experience has been gained on the performance of dams with asphaltic membranes or cores in actual earthquakes, it is expected that they would perform well - particularly those with asphaltic cores.