Why is the hoover dam so thick if the center won’t cure for 125 years?
In: 354
The dam is so thick because the sheer weight of it is what’s holding it down on bedrock and the force of the water in Lake Meade is pushing the edges of its arch shape into the walls of the canyon. It’s not attached in any way to the bedrock or the canyon walls.
When it was constructed there was a massive network of cooling pipes built into the dam to control the cure rate. This was to regulate the temperature so the utter mass of it wouldn’t heat up too quickly and cause problems with the curing process (think microwaved hot pocket: cold on the outside, liquid hot magma in the center)
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