Tempe Lake West Dam

How do you contain a man-made lake in the middle of the desert?

The Tempe Town Lake was completed in the summer of 1999. Water is a scarce resource in Arizona so the water for the Tempe Lake comes from the Colorado River though a chain of canals. Since this is an unnatural, man-made lake in the middle of the desert, the Tempe Lake West Dam has become an essential part of the Tempe Town Lake. In the 1970's and 1980's there was a massive flooding problem in the Salt River area which caused a lot of damage to the bridges and property in the area. The flooding was so detrimental that it would even cause injury and death to some of the Tempe residents. Due to the harmful effects of the flooding, the lake and the dam became a necessity for Tempe tenants.

The original dam in Tempe Town Lake was created using a series of rubber bladders made by Bridgestone Industrial Products. These bladders were 240 feet long and weighed roughly 40 tons. This type of dam is extremely uncommon and it is unknown if another rubber bladder dam exists anywhere in the U.S. At the time of its conception, it was expected that these rubber bladder dams would last up to thirty years, however, the city soon realized that these bladders required an enormous amount of patching up. As early as 2002, the City of Tempe began looking to improve the dam system in the lake. They were looking for a system that was more durable and had a longer life span. In the spring of 2009, there was a plan to have Bridgestone replace all of the rubber bladder dams with new material, to no extra cost to the City of Tempe. However, this plan was nixed when in the summer of 2010, the bladder dam ruptured.

Since the completion of the Tempe Town Lake nearly twenty years ago, it has had to be filled a total of three times. The first time it was filled was obviously in 1999 when the lake was created. In 2010, the rubber bladder dam burst, causing massive amounts of flooding in nearby areas and completely emptying Tempe Town Lake. At this point it became quite obvious to the City of Tempe that the rubber bladder dam was not going to work in the Tempe Lake. Upon closer examination of the dam, engineers concluded that the substantial amount of UV exposure was causing the rubber bladders to deteriorate at an alarming rate.

The flooding and emptying of the lake is a huge problem for Tempe. Again, the flooding has caused damage and injury in the past, so it is critical to prevent destructive flooding. Also, since the creation of the Tempe Town Lake in 1999, it has created 40,000 jobs in the area, attracts 2.4 million visitors each year, and has brought in a total of 1.5 billion dollars. Therefore, if the lake keeps emptying, it could negatively impact the economy.

In the winter of 2015 and 2016, the Tempe Town Lake was purposely drained in order to replace the dam with a completely new dam. The new hydraulically-operated steel and concrete dam is designed to be better quipped for the harsh Arizona heat and the enormous amount of sunlight that it is exposed to. The new dam cost the City of Tempe approximately 47 million dollars and took two years to fully complete; however, the lake was only closed for about three weeks as they temporarily drained the lake. The lake was then filled up for the third time, and hopefully the last time. The City of Tempe and its residents are optimistic that the new steel gate dam will be more durable. Since it was only installed within the last year, it is too early to tell whether or not this is the solution Tempe Town Lake needs to keep the water in the lake instead of damaging the city.

Location

Metadata