An 80 m long section of the Fort Henry embankment, on the River Shannon hydro-electric scheme failed due to rapid drawdown of the impounded reservoir in June 1979. The water level in the reservoir, at the time of the failure was the lowest for some 35 years. Investigations revealed that the failure plane was non-circular in shape and appeared to be confined to the embankment fill. Remedial work was implemented immediately and was successfully completed within 28 days of the failure. In the aftermath of the failure a review was made of the reservoir operating procedures and changes were implemented to the regulations for the control of the River Shannon. No subsequent difficulties have been encountered. The background to the failure, the remedial work and subsequent review of the reservoir operating procedures are all described in this paper. A description of the ground investigations at the site and the analysis of the slide are given in the accompanying paper to this conference by Long et al. (2002).
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